This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Leah Walsh: Hi, and welcome to The Compass, the podcast documenting the struggles of life as an artist.

[0:05] Leah Walsh: I'm Leah Walsh. Hi everyone, I have a mini episode for you today with a reading from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. So if you'd like to hear that, please stick with me. If not, check back in a couple weeks for our next full episode.

[0:19] Leah Walsh: It's gonna be the 150th episode of The Compass. I can't believe that. Um, and it's gonna be a live episode from BroadwayCon, thanks to the Broadway Podcast Network. The live taping will be Saturday, January 25th at 3 p.m., and I'm interviewing Monica Choxi, who's a dear friend of mine from Juilliard, and he's the only person that I'm having back so far as a second interview.

[0:42] Leah Walsh: He was my guest on episode 19, way back in the beginning, and has always been a great supporter of the podcast. So I'm excited to talk to him now. He's in the middle of a lot of amazing projects, uh self-generated and otherwise, and it should be a great time.

[1:04] Leah Walsh: So these are two separate quotes from different parts of Letters to a Young Poet. The first one goes like this. So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you. And remember that life has not forgotten you. It holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you?

[1:37] Leah Walsh: And then the second quote is I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

[2:16] Leah Walsh: That's always the difficult thing is living in the unknown for me. I'm such a planner. And I think I seek out control over things, even though that's one of the most impossible things in life. I don't know why we all think that we can have control over things. But we do. I do. And I try to have it, and I get upset when I don't. So living in those questions, something I have to work on. Have a great week, everybody.

[3:01] Leah Walsh: Thank you for listening to the Compass Podcast. If you find these conversations valuable to your life as an artist and would like to support the ongoing production of The Compass, please consider becoming a patron at Patreon.com slash TheCompass Podcast. Pledges start at as little as one dollar a month. Anything you can give would be greatly appreciated.

[3:20] Leah Walsh: Also, if you have a moment, please rate or review in iTunes. Every little bit helps other listeners to find the podcast. I'd like to thank the following people for their generosity. The Compass Cover Art is by Kim Miller, music by Brandon Sphere, audio assistance from Nick Choxie, and a special thanks to Frankie J. Alvarez. See you next time.