20
Aug
2009
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a post of a post

Monday, August 17, 2009
Overheard . . . from Rilke

The transformed speaks only to relinquishers.
All holders-on are stranglers.

–Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Edward Snow
Posted by Jerry Webb at 4:53 PM
Labels: poetry, Rilke, spirituality

1 comments:

kathy kelley said…

“All holders-on are stranglers.”

i can see this play out in my own actions.

yet it is very difficult for me to let go or even to begin to understand what it is i am to let go of. so i am trying to let go and hold on to the tangled weaving of what appears to be my life that slips through my fingers. i try to separate the strands so as i can see which i am to let go of so as not to strangle or be a strangler and which to hold on to in order to stay connected to the life i have been given. but then i give a tug to the string i think i should release and suddenly things i don’t expect unravel and i reach to grab the string back. i don’t know how to let go all the way. i am afraid.

but i do understand i must let go, i do know if i be a “holders-on” i will be a “strangler.”

i don’t want to be a strangler.

i do want to be transformed.

i do want to be a relinquisher.