Rainer Maria Rilke – from the Sonnets of Orpheus (Translated by Stephen Mitchell)
“Plump apple, smooth banana, melon, peach, gooseberry… how all this affluence speaks life and death into the mouth. I sense, observe it from a child’s transparent features while he tastes. What miracle is happening in my mouth. Instead of words, discoveries flow out from the ripe fruit, astonished to be free. Dare to say what “apple” truly is, this sweetness, at first thick, dark, dense then, exquisitely lifted in your taste, grows clarified, awake, luminous, double-meaninged, sunny, earthy, real. Oh knowledge… pleasure, inexhaustible!”
Greetings – It’s been awhile since my last blog entry, but life is about beginnings and endings and beginnings….and today felt inspired by this poem to post again. Here, Rilke, one of my favorite poets, invites us to imagine the unencumbered, child-like delight and intimate experience of being One with our senses. On one level, we find an ordinary, relatable vignette that can transport most of us to a time and place of our own sensual pleasures. Found myself reminiscing about a recent Autumn experience apple picking out on Long Island; such a treat. Spiritual connection with our body- sensual pleasures, sexuality, yoga and breath, kundalini to name a few- is a theme that I plan to include in more of my upcoming blogs.
There is beauty in meeting ourselves in the moment; sometimes this feels vulnerable, lonely, and filled with uncertainty. Though, I have learned that dropping out of the mind fixating on some thought or trying to create a way through, making decisions, trying to understand this or that – we are simply left with sinking into whatever arises in the moment. I’ve warmed to being alone with myself and trusting in all that is here right now. There is an exquisiteness to Being – and being One with the mystery of life unfolding. And as my blog, sub-title reminds…never not now.
Wishing anyone and everyone who is reading this much peace and happiness wherever you are in the world.
Alena Grace 