Touched by Rumi: July 2020

Rumi has the ability to reach people of all backgrounds, ages, religions, and more. His wisdom sparks us to look within and influences us to view ourselves and the world in a different way. In this section of our Monthly Newsletter we ask people to show us how Rumi has affected them and their way of thinking.


For Fariba Enteshari who taught us the religion of love.

BE THAT EMPTY

 
Dear Rumi you are with me
in these darkest of times
when covid-19 has made me empty

grounded, locked in
no calendar, no dinners
no trips, no hugs

no past no future
leaving me present
to polish my heart

no longer a fish
in the ocean
begging for water

coven is my Shams
it knocked me
off my donkey

the stream knows
it can’t stay
on the mountain

I am swimming
in a vast ocean of grace
still longing for it

you say when the ocean
comes to you as a lover
marry it quickly

I know now
in the longing is
the love

intimacy and the longing
for intimacy
one song

I no longer cry
from that cut from the reedbed
I am singing all along.
— Wendy Wilder Larsen
 

Unpublished.