Yesterday’s invitation to enter the mystery of the water path was stimulated in part by the song Oceans.
The idea of stepping out on the water is both ludicrous and awesome. And it takes us to places we wouldn’t otherwise go.
Today it’s the turn of the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, to offer an invitation. Here is his beautiful description of Rome over 100 years ago:
Endlessly, vigorously, water streams through the ancient aqueducts into the great city. In the many piazzas, it dances over white bowls of stone and spreads out in broad basins, rushing by day and through the night that is vast and glittering with stars and windblown spray. And there are gardens here, unforgettable promenades, and stairways conceived by Michelangelo, stairways modelled on flowing water, broadly descending, wave upon wave. Moving through the chattering crowd, one can sense the eternal residing in things.
+ Rainer Maria Rilke, excerpt from Letter Five, from Letters to a Young Poet, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, Shambhala Publications 2021
Yes, being in the presence of flowing water touches something deep inside.