Beautiful words
Over the past few years I have had many tangential moments with Rumi, the Sufi poet….
I have never actually sought out his words, but they find their way to me none the less. The have been dropped into conversation by well read friends, found me on the road in Turkey and, most recently, randomly drifted from the heavens into two books I have just completed.
Every time I encounter the Sufi Mystic’s words, I am struck by how perfectly crafted they are (even after translation.) While he was a religious man, his words have none of the heavy-handedness of religious texts. They extol the joys of life and suggest that you open your eyes to the world.
Here is the first verse of Rumi’s I ever saw:
“Dance,
when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandages off.
Dance, in the middle of the fighting.
Dance, in your blood.
Dance, when you’re perfectly free.” ~Rumi
(Rumi, by the way, founded the Whirling Dervishes…which explains the power he feels in dance. And for a girl who also subscribes to “Dance like no one is looking.” I particularly like this quote.)
Here, then, is a quote I found in Jeff Greewald’s ‘The Size of the World’ that I couldn’t help but pass along:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full too talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.”
-Rumi
And while that was the newest verse to stop me in my tracks…here is my favorite :
“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.” -Rumi
I think it’s about time to invest in a book of his poetry….
Tags: Life at 'Home'
LizG