We are not to know why
this and that masters us;
real life makes no reply,
only that it enraptures us

makes us familiar with it

May 1924

Rainer Maria Rilke

This early morning painting in the sky dissipates before my eyes: but it has been, among other things, about making rain, the falling of which will cause innumerable life forms to rise. Fallen leaf stems and the wonders they supported are washed to the side of the road: mulched, amassed and liquified, they will feed the very earth that lately raised them to sunlight. Why? / real life makes no reply, / only that it enraptures us.

When we become familiar with this real life, it dawns on us that absolutely nothing is wasted.