Hardship plays an important role in life (and on the road)
“Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don’t know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is going? Since you know, after all, that you are in the midst of transitions and you wished for nothing so much as to change. If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better.”
–Ranier Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (1929)
April 12th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Wow, what a great quote! It’s true that being uncomfortable means you’re probably going through a change. It’s like traveling. Perhaps you’re used to staying in 4 or 5-star hotels but to grow as a traveler your soul is longing for simpler lodgings such as a hostel or the Earth’s ground. Stretching yourself does make you uneasy at first, but the rewards that come from it are worth it in the end.
April 12th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Thank you for that affirmation. It helps to knock this duration off dead center and shed light on the solid ground that lay ahead…
April 14th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Thank you, for shedding light on what’s part of a “real” journey.