Life got a little in my way yesterday, so I’m playing catch-up again. The first reading, for yesterday, was so short, I’ve quoted it in full. My response to it is rather a reflection on how self focused we often become, especially when faced with difficult times in our lives.  The second piece is called You Come and Go.  It is from The Book of Hours I, 45.  My own response to this was as a reflection on how our grief and memory of someone changes over time.

Jan. 28, 2014

Am I Not the Whole?

God, are you then the All?  And I the separated one
who tumbles and rages?
Am I not the whole? Am I not all things
when I weep, and you the single one, who hears it?

from The Book of Hours II, 3 –- Rilke

How easy it is to suppose
we are the centre of our universe
all our questions somewhere hold the “I”.

When we are embraced by a depth of sadness,
our world pulls in, shrinks around us, we are small,
believe ourselves a single voice calling into darkness. 

Is there someone outside listening for our voices?
Are there words upon the wind that blows, or merely
echoes of our own cries, come to taunt us?

–CAS

Jan. 29, 2014

…we no longer look up
when your shadow falls on the book we are reading
and makes it glow.  — The Book of Hours I, 45 — Rilke

When he first died, I’d see his shadow
fall upon the stairs, or silhouetted
in the garden, just past evening.

His lingered music early mornings
would wake me gently with its echoes
from somewhere distant, its tune not quite recalled.
I don’t remember when his visits stopped,
his spirit finally finding rest, but sometimes,
mornings, I still hear music softly coming through my window.

–CAS