beauty, colour, enchantment, moments, sharing
The poet Rilke, writing to Elisabeth Ephrussi, told her to: ‘Look into the blue of the hyacinths. And the spring!’ Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s go and find a hyacinth and then inhale its heady perfume! And meet their wild cousins, the...
beauty, happiness, moments, sharing
Such a comforting line this, from a letter by the German poet Hölderlin. The sky and the air embrace me like a cradle-song.May they embrace you, too. And here is another thought of Hölderlin, on a peaceful state of work; and in another letter, his admiration for a...
enchantment, freedom, happiness, inspiration, nuannaarpoq
A warm and wise letter written by Kurt Vonnegut in 2006 in response to one received from a class – and its teacher Miss Lockwood – at Xavier High School. It gives nuannaarpoqian advice to young minds (and to Miss Lockwood), and is here read out charmingly...
happiness, kindness, life
Some wise words from Aaron Copland to a young Leonard Bernstein. They maintained a close friendship and correspondence for decades, and I like the advice. It reminds me of a word from a father to a daughter in an American novel: ‘Slow down, Ivy, slow...