For January 8th, A Year with Rilke selection is titled Balance. That “we” are not in balance with the tree of life, nor with the seasons.

I thought of my own experience with balance. How I lose focus on other things I need to do when I am on the computer for hours, even what this lack of physical movement does to my body’s balance. Here is my small stone for January 8. All my small stones are first drafts and first impressions:

Balance (Photo credit: Summations)

Jan. 8, 2014

Why am I out of step
with my own life?

I run to catch up,
then slow to the speed
of moving backward.

If I am hot,
I long for cool, then
shiver in the wind.

On one foot,
I wobble, untethered

–CAS

Rainer Maria Rilke (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today A Year with Rilke’s entry is called The Vastness of Connection. Rilke questions what his part  might be in the connection to the stars.  (At least, that is my interpretation of his writing today.)

This fits with some of my own questions right now, and so my small stone ponders connection too.

 ****

Jan. 7, 2014

projection (Photo credit: tom_focus)

To stand outside myself
a moment to consider
the vastness of the universe
how small my presence in it

how am I connected
to the world around me

how am I connected
to the stars?

–CAS

Rainer Maria Rilke (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

• Rainer Maria Ri…
• Quotes Rainer Maria Rilke
• Enjoy today! Here’s your quote of the day…

The January 5th entry in A Year With Rilke talks about our impermanence. He says it seems to be hidden from us.

I’ve recently been reading a small book on philosophy, death and the afterlife, which also speaks about how we tend to believe we will live forever, even in the face of evidence that we are not immortal.

On the one hand, I know that sooner or later we all die. On the other, I, like many of us, tend to live my life as if I had all the time in the world, so I often waste it on unimportant things (watching mindless reality shows or playing computer games), and on worry about things I cannot change. (Aging, for one, disability for another.)

Jan. 5, 2014

How much time between
now and then?

Old Clocks (Photo credit: servus)

Before I can write the words
future becomes past,

now as elusive as dreams,
tomorrow never quite arrives.

–CAS

Related articles

• “I have surrendered to the crazybusy cycle, and instead of trying to turn back the clock, I am…”