Poetry for Transformation: Rumi

"let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love"

The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.

We must get up and take that in, that wind that lets us live.

Breathe, before it's gone.

Your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror up to where you're bravely working.

Expecting the worst, you look, and instead here's the joyful face you've been wanting to see.

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.

If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you'd be paralyzed.

Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.

Today like every other day

We wake up empty and scared.

Don't open the door of your study

And begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do

There are hundreds of way to kneel

And kiss the earth.

This being human is a guest-house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

Who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture.

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you

out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

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