The Everyday Human

Origins of Hyperion


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April: On Nature

April 12

Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.

When lost in life, we often look for road signs, beacons atop a lighthouse, or the North Star to show us the way and guide us home. And the truth is, we just don’t look for these things, we expect them to be posted before our very eyes, to rise out of the ground and blink their characteristic, or to flare up into existence out of the abyss of nothing. 

We seek these things out, expecting they will guide us to the answers of our questions of life, death, love, meaning, and everything in-between—but they cannot answer us because they are not there. 

I encourage you instead to look to nature, to the drops of rain on the petals of a tulip, the soft bits of moss on a stone in the shade of a trail, the bees working through the day toward a communal goal, and then look to the small moments with those you love—holding your partner’s hand, making your child laugh, sitting by the warmth of a fire in the winter with friends. You may not see it, but over time, and with love and care, as with the redwood, these moments will stack one upon the other and one day, live right into the answer you seek.

  • Reflection title: Origins of Hyperion
  • Creative inspiration: Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
  • Reflection Question: Am I rushing my answers in life? Am I hearing the questions through or leaving them half unspoken? How can I better hold to the simplicity in nature?
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The Everyday HumanBy Eastin DeVerna