Worpswede, near Bremen,
16th July, 1903.

“You are so young, all beginning is so far in front of you, and I should like to beg you earnestly to have patience with all unsolved problems in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, or books that are written in a foreign tongue. Do not search now for the answers, which cannot be given you, because you could not live them. That is the point, to live everything. Now you must live your problems. And perhaps gradually, without noticing it, you will live your way into the answer some distant day. Perhaps you actually have in you the possibility of moulding and shaping, as a particularly blessed and pure form of life; train yourself in it—but take what comes in complete trust, and, as long as it comes from your own will, from some need or other of your inner self, then take it for itself and hate nothing…

“All my good wishes are ready to accompany you, and my confidence is with you.

“Yours,
“RAINER MARIA RILKE.”
Letters to a Young Poet, Translated by K.W Maurer 1943 (public domain)

1. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: ODOMOBaaT — One Day One Moment One Breath at a Time

2. May the unknown unknowns of your life present themselves gently and give you space and time to process and adjust. And if not, fuck ’em.

3. Hello love. What’s got you anxious today? Can you take some deep breaths, shake it out a little, and call forth your fortitude and gumption?

4. I know it’s so hard to not know how things will turn out — especially when certain outcomes could be scary. But I trust your courage.

5. You’ll get through it, I know you will. Because you’ve come through everything up to now. And look how AWESOME you are! Rock star.

6. What if we consistently reframed, even for just a little while, uncertainty as possibility?

7. Well, you’ve gotten this far. How often did you know for sure how everything’d turn out? I see proof that you can be totally ok regardless.

8. We simply cannot know the future with certainty. We could get hit by a truck. So we make our plans, act accordingly, and adjust as needed. We’ got this.

9. Hmmm, roadblocks and detours… We may not like them and avoid them, and sometimes the alternative, scenic routes make the trip. Maybe embrace?

10. What if this is your chance to let LOOSE your inner badass? How does that part of you already show up every day?

11. “…undaunted.” “You look daunted. Say it again like your UNdaunted.” (Says it again and kick(s) the soccer ball with only a little dauntedness)

12. Maybe you actually relish uncertainty? Maybe it makes you a little giddy and excited? teeheehee… May that energy rub off on more of us, please.

Hat tip to the Dead Poets Society poetry reading, soccer ball kicking scene. 😉