I fell in love with Rumi when I lived in Turkey.
As cliche as it’s starting to sound, things are changing today. For better or for worse (though I hope for better), tomorrow will be different.
So today I find myself short on words of my own.
I turn to Rumi.
I hope you enjoy his words as well.
The drum of the realization of the promise is beating.
We are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow?
The armies of the day have chased the army of the night,
Heaven and earth are filled with purity and light.
Oh! joy for he who has escaped from this world of perfumes and color!
For beyond these colors and these perfumes, these are other colors in the heart and the soul.
Oh! joy for this soul and this heart who have escaped
the earth of water and clay,
Although this water and this clay contain the hearth of the
philosophical stone.
-Mystic Odes 473
-
Rumi is one of those things (things? Rumi is a thing now?) that I’ve always heard such good stuff about and had it in my mind somewhere that I should read. But you know when you just KNOW something’s gonna be good so you keep waiting and waiting because you think you have to be super-duper ready to really squeeze every bit of juice out of it? Rumi was that for me. So I just sat around thinking someday — probably when I, you know, go live in an ashram or something — I would read.
Yay! Someday is today. Thanks for sharing. Rock on, dude.
Naomi Dunford’s last blog post..Skip School and Learn What You Need to Know Instead
-
Wow. I’m genuinely honored that you came here, Namoi. Seriously. I feel more like one of the cool kids now … at least the sort of cool kids I want to be.
Rumi is closely associated with what we in the West call the Whirling Dervishes. Every December, hundreds (thousands?) of them gather in the middle-of-nowhere in Turkey – a city called Kona. (BTW, Kona is the bomb! If you go to Turkey, visit it!)
There’s nothing quite like the sight of dozens of women and men spinning, spinning, spinning to this amazing ethereal music. When you see it and hear it, you know where Rumi’s poetry came from.
You, in particular should get your hands on some more Rumi, because from what I read on your blog, he’s your kind of guy. Here’s an example:
A dervish knocked at a house to ask for a piece of dry bread, or moist, it didn’t matter.
“This is not a bakery,” said the owner.
“Might you have a bit of gristle then?”
“Does this look like a butchershop?”
“A little flour?”
“Do you hear a grinding stone?”
“Some water?”
“This is not a well.”
Whatever the dervish asked for, the man made some tired joke and refused to give him anything.
Finally the dervish ran in the house, lifted his robe, and squatted as though to take a shit.
“Hey, hey!”
“Quiet, you sad man. A deserted place is a fine spot to relieve oneself,and since there’s no living thing here, or means of living, it needs fertilizing.”
-
This made me belly laugh, thank you!
Emma Newman’s last blog post..Is self-publishing cheating?
-
Yes! Thank you for this ode to hope!
Molly Gordon’s last blog post..How Prospective Clients Can Teach You Marketing: The Surprising Relationship Between Marketing and Empathy
-
It’s a month later. And the shit’s hit(ting) the fan in this country. And I am still ecstatic about who we have elected and still find where “The drum of the realization of the promise is beating” — Thank you!
-
@Emma … yes, that makes me laugh every time I remember it too!
@Molly and @Heidi … I agree … “ode to hope” … things are messy, but you have to actually embrace the mess in order to clean it up. The drum is still beating and I continue to be hopeful!
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://www.twitchinggreymatter.com/wp-trackback.php?p=22