For one human being to love another: that is the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test of proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.---R.M. Rilke
Crescent Moon from Glastonbury.
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3 comments:
A bit mystical, and I'm sure, for many, true. But, I've come to a new realization. It is absolutely impossible to care for others when you do not care for yourself...yet, self-care is something few of us learned. We must spend hours, hours, days, days, messing around with this task, with very little relief. Don't you think? I'm really wishing now that I could actually relive huge sections of my life, knowing what I know now, and not wasting time on that whole concept of loving another. See, love yourself...that's the truest, ultimate test of proof.
I agree with you that from a psychological viewpoint, self love is not only necessary but essential to the process of individuation and hopefully, eventually, a mature love relationship.
And it is also true that people can waste years of their lives seeking what is impossible or not fated for them instead of enjoying the fullness of their own being and the company of themselves.
But what of this mystical "other" that poets adore, that lovers see, that mystics have flashes of, that philosophers attempt to explain, that mothers see in the moment their newborns open their eyes.
We cannot go back and we cannot- not search for love- because it is everywhere waiting for us.
It is in this territory of the soul that Rilke walks.
Thank you for this personal response as it opens such an interesting discussion. I myself have done both in my life; pursued love with every fiber of my being and also not at all.
What a lovely picture.
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