Rumi

So, I am soloing again...what will be the fodder for my thoughts?
My life and schedule have taken off this week...
school is back in session...for the kids...for me.
I didn't realize and appreciate how much I was enjoying my summer without a demanding schedule.
I do find comfort in the structure of the schedule though...so I will take the good with the bad.


So I am looking at my desk...
it is a mess...but I know where everything is...
And I find 3 books..two of which I have already shared and commented on.
The third book is called Illuminated Rumi, translations and commentary by Coleman Barks.
A good friend introduced me to the wisdom and poetry of Rumi several years ago...
and also to the incredible translations by Coleman Barks...she gave me a CD of readings.
The southern accent of Barks reading the wisdom of Rumi from the 1200's is amazing.
The book begins...
Come, Come, whoever you are!
Wanderer, Worshipper, Lover of Leaving come.
This is not a caravan of despair. It doesn't matter if you've broken your vow a hundred times,
Still Come, and yet again Come!

The divine invites us to come along on the journey of a lifetime...a love filled journey of discovery...discovering who we really are.

What strange beings we are!
That sitting in Hell
at the bottom of the dark
we are afraid of our own

I, and I believe that we, have sat in a self imposed Hell for long enough...
stuck in the swamp...
afraid to let go of the shroud that weighs us down while it covers our wounds...
we are afraid of the unknown...
preferring to sit in pain within the familiar.
The reanimation is driven by acknowledging that the wounds don't have to be kept secret and hidden...
It is about sharing experiences...
offering compassion to others...
accepting compassion from others...
accepting Me Too.

One final poem for today that is fitting...
A night full of talking that hurts,
my worst held-back secrets:
Everything has to do with loving.
This night will pass. Then we have work to do.
Painstaking work,
Then the swan spreads his wings.
It amazes me that the human experience is so constant. In the 1200's people struggled much as they do today. This is the same time in history that St. John of the Cross wrote The Dark Night of the Soul...
Where is the evolution of human souls?

Maggie