awaiting the birth-hour

everything is gestation and then bringing forth.  to let each impression and each germ of a feeling come to completion quite in itself, in the dark, in the inexpressible, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one's own understanding, and await with deep humility and patience the birth-hour of a new clarity:  that alone is living the artist's life - in understanding as in work.

-rainer maria rilke (1875-1926)