Everything terrible is something that needs our love.
Interpretation
Embracing pain and hardship with compassion can transform our experience and those around us.
Rainer Maria Rilke's quote suggests that even the most difficult and unfortunate aspects of life are in need of our love and attention. By acknowledging and embracing these challenges, we can cultivate a deeper sense of empathy, understanding, and connection to the world, ultimately fostering healing and transformation in ourselves and in others.
In practice
To comfort a friend who is going through a tough time, I shared Rainer Maria Rilke's wisdom on loving our challenges.
Spring has again returned. _x000D_ _x000D_ The Earth is like a child that knows many poems._x000D_ _x000D_ Many, O so many. For the hardship_x000D_ _x000D_ of such long learning she receives the prize._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ Strict was her teacher. _x000D_ _x000D_ The white in the old man's beard pleases us._x000D_ _x000D_ Now, what to call green, to call blue,_x000D_ _x000D_ we dare to ask: She knows, She knows!
Verses are not, as people think, feelings (those one has early enough) -- they are experiences. For the sake of a verse one must see many cities, men, and things, one must know the animals feel how birds fly, and know the gesture with which the little flowers open in the morning.
a good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude
He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog.
The only journey is the one within.
And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been
You’ll come back To me . . . It’s written in the stars, you see, you’ll come back. You’ll come back, it’s a fact that I am strong because I do believe in you.
Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods; desired by those who have no part in him, and precious to those who have the better part in him.
Two persons love in one another the future good which they aid one another to unfold.
A soul cannot live without loving. It must have something to love, for it was created to love.
It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe - the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.
No more words. We know them all, all the words that should not be said. But you have made my world more perfect.
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