I must change my life.
The Panther, Rainer Maria Rilke
His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him there are
a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.
As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.
Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly—. An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.
If we only arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet
Song: “Chasing Dragons” by Gemma Hayes
What I’m afraid of is the dawning realization that I am, at best, a Beast who’s doomed never to lift the curse I brought down upon myself or, at worst, a mere Beast who’s been deluded that he could ever have been worthy of Beauty’s love.
