Recently a friend made an observation to me about our friendship, remarking that it feels like what it was like when we were 4 or 5 years old – just so free, unfettered, unworried. It was a great way to describe the ease of our connection. I have thought about this often since then. It strikes me as a worthy goal to strive to live with such honesty and freedom whenever and however possible. One of my favorites of Rilke’s poems keeps coming to mind in this regard, so I want to share it here.

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.