For we are only hull and leaf... [countdown: 11]

Denn wir sind nur die Schale und das Blatt.
Der große Tod, den jeder in sich hat,
das ist die Frucht, um die sich alles dreht.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

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"For we are only hull and leaf..."

We all carry the seed of death, the potential "fruit", within us and much of our frenzied efforts and activity is prompted by the inevitability of this fruit's ripening. Girls and boys, mothers, artists, and architects all long and spin and turn and shape because death looms in the background. In fact, much of our emotional and intellectual activity is a product of our being aware of this fruit, which is so painfully slow in maturing.

~ Annemarie S. Kidder ~