April 13 – Tagore, longing, desire, and doubt

Monday, April 13 —  capricious weather and very early buds

Beginning a week’s work near the end of a term’s work  . . .  while the world turns bright all around us.   I spent the weekend in New England; they’ve had a colder spring than we; the trees are still winter naked and the land only begins to recover from all those piles of snow and ice.   A lovely surprise to come back home this morning to leaf-buds showing their colors and, driving in from Metro, seeing real live summer grass showing off here and there along I-94.   All this energy encourages  me to stop and taste some wonder.

Rabindranath Tagore, a master of sacred presence, writes in today’s post, that tastes of wonder and courage and beauty and tenderness compete with gloom and restless edginess.   Distractions lose connection with the deep down mystery.  “Trust the mystery,”  says Tagore, “even when trust feels out of reach.”

Have a blest week.

 

john sj

Today’s Post  —  Tagore  # 38, in Gitanjali

That I want Thee, only thee–let my heart repeat without end.
All desires that distract me, day and night,
are false and empty to the core.

As the night keeps hidden in its gloom the petition for light,
even thus in the depth of my unconsciousness rings the cry–
“I want thee, only thee.”

As the storm still seeks its end in peace when it strikes against
peace with all its might, even thus my rebellion strikes against thy love
and still its cry is–“I want thee, only thee.”

Tagore, Gitanjali n. 38

Tagore

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913
Rabindranath Tagore

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