Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s work, Dr. Zhivago.
“Farewell, my great one, my own, farewell, my pride, farewell, my swift, deep, dear river, how I loved your daylong splashing, how I loved to plunge into your cold waves.”
Note: Life for us is a long series of letting go. We let go of childhood to enter adolescence. We let go of adolescence to enter adulthood. During our adult journey we may let go of good health. We may lose a partner to death. Each time we let go we experience the pain of separation. We’re never really healed from the separations, each separation leaves a scar. Some of my scars are more visible than others, but I carry them as you do yours. With each separation there is a time of mourning. If we’re healthy, we begin to look forward to the next chapter with hope-filled expectations. Then we get on with life and leave what was lost behind.
Ignorant Before The Heavens Of My Life by Rainer Maria Rilke
Ignorant before the heavens of my life,
I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness
of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still.
As if I didn’t exist. Do I have any
share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with
their pure effect? Does my blood’s ebb and flow
change with their changes? Let me put aside
every desire, every relationship
except this one, so that my heart grows used to
its farthest spaces. Better that it live
fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than
as if protected, soothed by what is near.
Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s work, Dr. Zhivago.
“I don’t think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.”
Note: Have you read the Velveteen Rabbit? It’s a children’s book with a beautiful message. We are the sum of our experiences. I like being around real people. People who have struggled yet refused to quit. People who haven’t had it easy and had the grit to get up each day and keep grinding. They know that life isn’t easy. They know if they endure they’ll make it to another sunrise. They know that other people are depending on them. There are a piece of marble that life sculptured into a masterpiece. That’s you! You are a masterpiece in the making.
Longing by Friedrich von Schiller
Could I from this valley drear,
Where the mist hangs heavily,
Soar to some more blissful sphere,
Ah! how happy should I be!
Distant hills enchant my sight,
Ever young and ever fair;
To those hills I’d take my flight
Had I wings to scale the air.
Harmonies mine ear assail,
Tunes that breathe a heavenly calm;
And the gently-sighing gale
Greets me with its fragrant balm.
Peeping through the shady bowers,
Golden fruits their charms display.
And those sweetly-blooming flowers
Ne’er become cold winter’s prey.
In you endless sunshine bright,
Oh! what bliss ‘twould be to dwell!
How the breeze on yonder height
Must the heart with rapture swell!
Yet the stream that hems my path
Checks me with its angry frown,
While its waves, in rising wrath,
Weigh my weary spirit down.
See–a bark is drawing near,
But, alas, the pilot fails!
Enter boldly–wherefore fear?
Inspiration fills its sails,
Faith and courage make thine own,–
Gods ne’er lend a helping-hand;
‘Tis by magic power alone
Thou canst reach the magic land!
Let me arise and open the gate,
to breathe the wild warm air of the heath,
And to let in Love, and to let out Hate,
And anger at living and scorn of Fate,
To let in Life, and to let out Death.
Poem of Life
Unknown Author
Life is but a stopping place,
A pause in what’s to be,
A resting place along the road,
to sweet eternity.
We all have different journeys,
Different paths along the way,
We all were meant to learn some things,
but never meant to stay…
Our destination is a place,
Far greater than we know.
For some the journey’s quicker,
For some the journey’s slow.
And when the journey finally ends,
We’ll claim a great reward,
And find an everlasting peace,
Together with the lord
Because the road was steep and long And through a dark and lonely land, God set upon my lips a song And put a lantern in my hand. Through miles on weary miles of night That stretch relentless in my way My lantern burns serene and white, An unexhausted cup of day. O golden lights and lights like wine, How dim your boasted splendors are. Behold this little lamp of mind: It is more starlike than a star! Source
