“The shivering blaze of every step up”
I think that is every time you try something new, or something you are scared of that terrifying moment when you step into the unknown and realize that you are still ok. I think I need to be terrified a little bit more often.

Michael
I must have missed something. Surely the poem is about releasing yourself from wants. Yet you list a lot of wants. Maybe your message is too subtle for me?
Cheers
Alec

I can relate to this poem. At the moment I’m still in the darkness as my husband of 26 years left me for someone else on New Years Day but I’m looking forward to climbing out of the darkness and experiencing the ’shivering blaze” of stepping up and out into the light. I particularly like the last verse which gives me hope for a future that’s changed now, beyond all recognition.

Alec - the way I read the poem is about connecting to deep and powerful wants. But hey - that’s the thing about poetry, it opens itself up to many different readings.

Fran - what a tumultuous start to the year for you. I’m sorry to hear your news, and I’m glad there’s that thought of the ’shivering blaze’ pulling you forward

Michael,
RE: Your Birthday
1) It is better to have a birthday than to NOT be having one!
2) The advantage of getting older is that you recognize all the disasters, mess-ups and crazy events as things you have lived through before, and therefore you don’t have to get so upset about them.

“you have not grown old” … last Saturday a friend and took another friend for dinner for her 50th irthday. I realized that I’ve known her for 22 years! WOW! (I’m 57 now) We talked about the changes over that time and what SHE has - much she’s asked for.
On Monday, I sent an email to Aletta de Wal who I’ve known since 1970 - my longest standing friendship - to say that Saturday made me think of her and that I miss seeing her often (she’s far away now). She phoned me that evening, said noone has said such nice things to her, and we talked for ages.
So … you never know … isn’t living WONDERFUL!!!
Trudy

For me, the ’shivering blaze of a step up’ is when I find that I have responded like Jesus, when I see more of Him in me, it is thrilling beyond compare. I’m thirsty for Him, for more of His light shining through me, and less of my weakness, my selfishness. I really dislike the idea of being needed like a tool. To me, this implies that when usefulness is over, the person is to be discarded and another taken up. I’ve seen people used like that, and it’s ugly. I’ve not grown old because I surround myself with children, with learning, with nurturing and helping and laughing together. Their bounding victories are a tonic to me, a thrill to be cherished, and a privilege to share.

I was reminded of a line in one of my favorite poems : What can I tell my bones by Theodore Roethke.

‘Before the moon draws back,
Dare I blaze like a tree?’

Here’s what I think about youth: thank God that’s over.

Hi Michael. I think that a truly inspired teacher needs her/his students like “a crowbar or a hoe.” Together, we turn over new concepts, prepare new ground. I am lucky to have had such teachers and am now studying art with another one such individual. It is a joyful and collaborative process!

Hi Michael. I think that a truly inspired teacher needs her/his students like “a crowbar or a hoe.” Together, we turn over new concepts, prepare new ground. I am lucky to have had such teachers and am now studying art with another such individual. It is a joyful and collaborative process!

I’ve found growing older (I’m 63) an adventure! Maybe I was a late starter or something, but my best decade so far was my 50s - my 60s are shaping up pretty well too! I got my Ph.D. a couple of days before I turned 60 so that was cool, but it was also when I realised that it is, after all, merely a piece of paper; but it was a fantastic process to get there. An examination of my own life… so, the shimmering blaze of every step up is the insight that I am becoming … authentic?

Growing older provides a balance, a stability and the wisdom of experience. However, we have an increasing gap of communication between those who’ve gained the experience and the new ideas of the youth in the workplace. My business is doing knowledge transfer for transitioning employees. I’ve been doing this work (and loving it) for about 14 years. I see more challenges now created between the generations than I have in the past. It’s driven in part by fast moving technology and new ways to relate– like social networking. If all generations could stand in curiosity, we would move communicate gracefully. Great newsletter, thank you for your work. Kathy

Dr. Sybil,
Congratulations to you! I got my PhD at 46 and although it may be “just a piece of paper” it changed many things for me and opened many doors.

I’ve also found growing older an adventure-I’ll be 60 in two weeks and I still think that perhaps “the best is yet to come.”

I really like these lines from the poem:

“You have not grown old, and it not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out its own secret.”

Thanks, Michael, for sending us this

==> What’s the “shivering blaze of every step up” for you?

Every loosening of a knot, every tiny opening to the flow of love and wisdom.

==> What are you thirsty for?

The deepest expression of my self.

==> Who needs you like a crowbar or a hoe? Who do you need?

My children and my partner need me, and I need them. Plus someone to frequently remind me that I’m not an island

==> How have you grown old? How have you not?

In appearance and perspective, not in laughter or wonder.

Thanks Ken, Kathy, Anne, Sybil, Hannah, Linda, Peg, Sunnie, and Trudy for your comments - I’m loving the insights and passion you’re sharing with me

Thanks for sharing this and other thoughts. Every time I take the time to read your newsletter I’m inspired and uplifted.

I’m particularly taken with the phrase, “the shivering blaze of every step up.” The past 12 months have been incredibly challenging for me, and each time I’ve answered the call of my future I’ve been astounded by the exponential broadening of my horizon.

Every step has been scary and exhilarating, from pushing through my first semester back in school last spring during monstrous family difficulties to writing my book to now being urged by professors to participate in literary conferences.

A good deal of my progress has been due to my willingness to just show up. The rest of it is sheer stubbornness. lol

I agree that professors are like crowbars and hoes–I’ve had two that functioned as both. And it’s not that they forced anything–it’s more that they pried open my lid and let me out and tilled my garden, aerated my soil.

It’s true, too, that as we grow older our depths increase. I’m happy to be excavating.

Hi

First, It’s Rilke. He has saved my ass so many times. And, It is being seen through Robert Bly’s eyes. Such creativity. Steven Mitchel also does a great job with Rilke.

I have a copy of his selected letters by RFC Hull. Completely different from Bly and Mitchel. And it is equally beautiful.

That shows the genius of Rainer Maria Rilke.

The shivering blaze of every step up;

Definitely Bly’s wordcraft.

I finally found myself wanting to respond after hearing someone “amazed” at turning forty. I remember mine. Interesting about:
{the truth of the saying “inside every old person is a young person saying ‘what the hell happened?}.

My thought is I would never give up the wisdom of age, for the confusion of youth. And I have reached a place where my reflection of things past is “pleasantly” cast back over my shoulder.

And we will be truly young if we shuffle off the past daily realities the way our skin is constantly dying and flaking off, creating a new me every 28 days.

That’s enough for now.

G.

How do you do Michael!
I came across your work via the GTD (David Allen) website. I think what you’re doing looks great, and very lighthearted, and maybe I synch with it coz I’m an Aussie too. And I’ve just signed up for your newsletter. Maybe I am looking for some support because the work I have embarked on is very challenging for me - financially, creatively, organisationally - but worthwhile and potentially fulfilling. (The URL I’ve submitted is “under construction”.) Anyway, my friend, regarding the Rilke poem … please excuse my question… You invite us to read it twice, which I was very pleased to do, and the second time I read it out loud and savoured it slowly… and then I read: “by the slippery easy” - should that be “ease”? and “and it not too late” - should that be “it’s”? If these are indeed the typos I suspect they might be, (a) are they the only ones? and (b) can you fix them for us out here so that we can really surrender to the beauty of the lines, secure in their authenticity? With many thanks for your attention, Andrew.

Andrew

Thanks for catching those typos - you’re dead right, and we’ve changed them now

Thanks Connie! (and Michael for starting this thread)

I seldom use Dr. because I live in a small community and to most of the town, Dr. means ‘medical’ - I say, I’m a doctor of thinking! Now that I’ve retired, I do more thinking than ever before. The Socratic adage, ‘an unexamined life is not worth living’ makes more and more sense.

Peace

Eleanor

oops, I just put in my ‘other’ name!

Sybil