Writing – Rilke and Smith (On Vocation, Part 2)

Rilke and Smith provide wonderful descriptions of their individual calls to vocation, both writing.

Therefore, my dear friend, I know of no other advice that this: Go within and scale the depths of your being from which your very life springs forth. At its source you will find the answer to the questions, whether you must write. Accept it, however it sounds to you, without analyzing. Perhaps it will become apparent to you that you are indeed called to be a writer. Then accept that fate; bear its burden, and its grandeur, without asking for the reward, which might possibly come from without. For the creative artist must be a world of his own and must find everything within himself and in nature, to which he has betrothed himself. — Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

I can report that though I always enjoy writing, writing about religion gives me the greatest pleasure, because at religion’s best (the part I dwell on), it inspires me. This makes writing about it enjoyable, and more. It brings the kind of fulfillment Aristotle called flourishing and makes my mornings a holy time — by extension, a time of prayer. –Huston Smith, The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition