>>>>Jane Through The Seasons

Now, my prayers are not to make requests but to give thanks for the strength in facing each day as best I could. I am thankful for the difficulties that make me pause and learn to see in new ways. I am thankful for the comfort state reached, having travelled from a place of discomfort. I am thankful for every seeming rejection: from the death of loved ones to sunless cloudy days––all is good. Beauty is becoming easier to find in that which seemed lacking of it. There are also pains from this novel experience of beauty: I have been suffering happiness. An interesting circumstance that has been challenging to talk about since it often comes across as though one means to toot one's own horn. It is  difficult to communicate to others that you are suffering from excessive happiness because those with whom you might be comfortable to speak on the subject might not be interested, and when interested, may not understand. That happiness is painful is something I have been noticing gradual…

“Most people have (with the help of conventions) turned their solutions toward what is easy and toward the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust in what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it, everything in Nature grows and defends itself any way it can and is spontaneously itself, tries to be itself at all costs and against all opposition” (Rainer Maria Rilke. Letters to a Young Poet. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. NY: Modern Library, 2001, p. 67-68).
There are two aspects of the seventh chapter of Letters that are worth perusing, the first is Rilke’s notion of choosing the difficult, and the second is his reflections on love. Hence I am splitting the seventh chapter into two parts. This post will focus on the notion of difficulty and part B, next to come in the series––probably in February, that is, if one is still breathing and able to blog––will examine Rilke’s perspective on love. To better explore what Rilke means by “we must trust in what is difficult,” l…