Living Questions

This afternoon we were returning from donating bags & boxes of books to the library. We were deep in conversation about these friends we had left behind, as to whether they were not still with us. As we came to a corner at the bottom of a hill, I had to pull over. I had to take in and retain the mystery of the trees, brush, hills and fog that suddenly surrounded us.

I was reminded of some words of Rainer Maria Rilke which I had recently run across somewhere:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.

We can surrender their books, but we must hold fast to their words.