I have four books of daily readings that I read every morning: A Year with Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet,The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom from the Dalai Lama, Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief, by Martha Hickman and Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul by Melody Beattie. I highly recommend them all.

I especially love the wonderfully weird mystic, dervish, Persian poet from the 13th Century, Rumi, (who over 800 years later, is the best selling poet in America) . Rumi incorporated poetry, music and dance into religious practice. It is said, “Rumi would whirl while he was meditating and while composing poetry, which he dictated,” 

Jelaluddin Rumi, the 13th century mystic poet, was truly one of the most passionate and profound poets in history. Now, today his presence still remains strong, due in part to how his words seem to drip of the divine, and startle a profound remembrance that links all back to the Soul-Essence. Born in what is present day Afghanistan in 1207, he produced his master work the Masnawi which consists of over 60,000 poems before he died in 1273. Across time, place and culture, Rumi’s poems articulate what it feels like to be alive. There’s always a playfulness mixed in with the wisdom. He is the poet of joy and love.

Here’s my poem for today. For me it was so fitting:

My worst habit is I get so tired of winter
I become a torture to those I’m with

If you are not here, nothing grows
I lack clarity. My words
tangle and knot up

How to cure bad water? Send it back to the river
How to cure bad habits? Send me back to you.

When water gets caught in habitual whirlpools,
dig a way out through the bottom
to the ocean. There is a secret medicine 
given only to those who hurt so hard
they can’t hope.

The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.

Look as long as you can at the friend you love,
no matter whether that friend is moving away from you
or coming back toward you.

And in closing here is one of his sayings that I love:
“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

See you there,

DeeDee