Mark S. Burrows: Hello, my name is Mark Burrows, and I'm delighted to welcome you to the retreat I'll be leading at Bonnevaux this spring. entitled 'Everything Matters: Living the Questions & Daring the Present with Rainer Maria Rilke' Why Rilke's writings at this point in time and space. Because this is one of the writers who helps us integrate our lives. Whose questioning of the world around us, invites us to immerse ourselves in its reality. And to discover that the binaries of inner and outer, up and down, in and out, really are not sufficient to direct us to the wholeness of life. He once wrote in the journal entry "you have to live life to the limit. Not according to each day, but according to its depth." And I think in many ways this is what has drawn me back to Rilke again and again. I've spent most of my life reading Rilke and translating his works, interpreting his poems and writings for audiences, gatherings of folk who are seeking to find an integration in their own lives. Rilke early on said that we should live the questions and not look for premature answers, live into the uncertainties of our lives and discover there a resource that allows us to live more fruitfully, more lovingly, more faithfully.
