Go to the limits of your longing by 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 a 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.

Book of Hours, Translation Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

• What would it be like to go to the limits of your longing? Begin a piece (prose or poetry) with the words, My longing takes me…. Allow your imagination to flow onto the page.

• What images are evoked by the command: Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Explore your answer in your journal.

• What do you hold onto when times are turbulent? Is it a god? Connection to nature? A particular belief or relationship? What steadies you, so that you don’t lose yourself? Explore your answer in your journal.