I’m having trouble wrangling my brain into producing a blog post this morning (she doesn’t want to work today), but I very much want to say hello. So today, I’m doing something a little different: sharing one of my favorite poems.
To be honest, I’m not a huge poetry fan. Most of the time it makes me feel stupid and uncultured for not immediately understanding the hidden meanings. (Is that just me?) But there are some notable exceptions, and the poem below by Rumi is one of them.
The last two lines, especially—enjoy this being washed / by a secret you sometimes know, / and then not—resonate with me, and I remember them when I’m feeling emotionally great and balanced and have everything figured out…and also the times when it all crashes down and I understand nothing about my life.
Here’s hoping you love it, too! I’ll be back next week with regularly scheduled programming.
Story Water
by Rumi
A story is like water
that you heat for your bath.
It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you!
Very few can sit down
in the middle of the fire itself
like a salamander or Abraham.
We need intermediaries.
A feeling of fullness comes,
but usually it takes some bread
to bring it.
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
to light that’s blazing
inside your presence.
Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.
// image source
