Not to be Extraneous

"The following realization rivals in its significance a religion: that once the background melody has been discovered one is no longer baffled in one's speech and obscure in one's decisions. There is a carefree security in the simple conviction that one is part of a melody, which means that one legitimately occupies a specific space and has a specific duty toward a vast work where the least counts as much as the greatest. Not to be extraneous is the first condition for an individual to come consciously and quietly into his own."

-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Life

http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Life-Translations-Library-Classics/dp/0812969022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269032815&sr=1-1