The Return Message

“You that love lovers, this is your home.  Welcome!”
~ “Music Master”, Rumi

There’s space here this morning
to steep myself in poetry
joyful
tears spilling over words
dazzling on pages
in early slants of light
mystic messages
touched by love

they travel centuries
these alphabetical promises
reaching me in my bed
where I nestle in
banana leaves and birdsong

ancient verse
and a laptop
collide
Rumi
your words reach my heart
and I am home.
Thank you!

“…Crying out for help is Rumi’s point.  With that vulnerable breaking open in the psyche, the milk of grace starts to flow.”
~ excerpt from “The Howling Necessity:  Cry Out in your Weakness”, The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks

courtesy of quinn.anya

Love Dogs

One night a man was crying
Allah!  Allah!

His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
“So!  I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?”

The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.

He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.

“Why did you stop praising?”
“Because I never heard anything back.”

“This longing
you express is the return message.”

The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.

Your pure sadness that wants help
is the secret cup.

Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs
no one knows the names of.

Give your life
to be one of them.

~ Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 – 1273)

courtesy of amerune

Threads of Time

When I moved to this sweet home, I hung Tibetan prayer flags with hopeful wishes.  I love to see time reflected in the fabric.

Jessica Dofflemyer ~ all rights reserved

Closing a chapter here, I’m moving to a new place and giving thanks for all that this space has offered me.

This morning at sunrise, I’m embracing change.

Scratch-free

Continuing on the thread of the posts from the last two days, I’m still pondering the perspectives of “No Enemy” and “That Which You Resist Persists.”

I’ve also been reflecting on the beautiful word “ease” and thinking about how I want its essence to infuse my life.

If resistance is essentially a frictional “no” then perhaps its antidote is a welcoming “yes.”

Jessica Dofflemyer ~ all rights reserved

Affirmation to the moment at hand.

I used to hike hidden goat trails with friends in remote valleys.  The paths were narrow and usually overgrown with flora, especially the invasive lantana plant, full of thick thorns.  As we made our way through the underbrush someone developed a mantra “no resistance, no scratches.”  

We found that the more we relaxed into walking through the brush without recoiling or fighting the branches, the more we became almost impermeable to getting scratched.  It was an energetic, almost like Tai Chi, where we became ‘one’ with our surroundings and moved in easy coherence with our environment.

Saying “yes” to the moment doesn’t necessarily mean a passive existence.  I believe we can still shape our moments, like a sailor uses a rudder to steer a boat within the current.

To apply these metaphors to the here-and-now, I’ll tell you that Jeb has now woken from his slumber.  He’s hungry and desiring to share with me the record-breaking animals from his Book of World Records.  It’s time to prepare his lunch and make my bed.  Life calls me away from this writing realm here in the Archives.

I could either cling to the banks or simply go with the forces that are now moving me in new directions.

I know I’ve got my symbolism all overlapped.  Brambly bushes on earthen trails and the watery currents of life’s river.  I won’t resist, just accept that it’s a makeshift morning with little time for writing refinement.  Hopefully, you catch my drift.

I’m thinking ease.  I’m envisioning gentle currents with steady steering.  I’m feeling scratch-free.  I’m saying “yes.”