Let everything happen...No feeling is final

Yesterday I was in bed wrapped up in my thick doona and electric blanket, but this morning Spring sprung out of no-where. Yay! I sat outside in the glorious sunshine, pulling up the bottoms of my jeans so I could get some sun on my lily-white legs.

I started my meditation practice by just asking, 'How do I feel?' 

Breathing slowly in and out, I slowly directed attention throughout my body, and towards my feelings. 


Over the next twenty minutes image after image arose; a burnt-out tree in a desolate landscape; someone lost in a pale blue sea of sadness; an endless field of frozen ice. They were all images of loss and hopelessness. 

As I just whispered, 'yes...yes...just stay...just stay' to myself, I thought of this Rilke poem, which I heard yesterday on a podcast talk by Tara Brach.

Let Everything Happen
Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

 Photo: "Nighttime on Muri" from a travel blog.

Do you have a favorite poem that help you with your meditation practice?  I'd love to know, please just leave a comment.