We are but drops of the ocean.

Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,

no light and no land anywhere,

cloudcover thick. I try to stay

just above the surface, yet I’m already under

and living within the ocean.

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din; Barks, Coleman. The Essential Rumi - reissue (p. 12). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

UUs beware of nihilistic narcissism.

Be a connoisseur, and taste with caution.

Any wine will get you high.

Judge like a king, and choose the purest,
the ones unadulterated with fear, 
or some urgency about “what’s needed.”

Drink the wine that moves you 
as a camel moves when it’s been untied,
and is just ambling about.

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din; Barks, Coleman. The Essential Rumi - reissue (p. 7). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

Jesus said to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.

The bumper sticker says "If you believe in everything, you can fall for anything."

Ken Wilber warns of nihilistic narcissism.

UUs beware.

The yin and yang, the good and bad, the blessing and the curse - both are parts of the whole

Drunks fear the police,

but the police are drunk too. 

People in this town love them both

like different chess pieces.

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din; Barks, Coleman. The Essential Rumi - reissue (p. 4). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

Where did you come from and where are you going?

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.

Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?

I have no idea.

My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,

and I intend to end up there.

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din; Barks, Coleman. The Essential Rumi - reissue (p. 2). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

A year's journey with Rumi in 2023

 This year, 2023, along with A Course In Miracles, UU A Way Of Life will be reading and reflecting on the ideas from the poetry of Rumi in the book, The Essential Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks.

We are born and then we return.

 The Qur’an says, “We are all returning.”

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din; Barks, Coleman. The Essential Rumi - reissue (p. 1). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

Don't be afraid of the dark; fermentation is in process.

Fermentation is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation. When grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time in a dark place, the results are spectacular.

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din; Barks, Coleman. The Essential Rumi - reissue (p. 1). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition. 

Looking for the shining of the Friend

"One day I was going along
looking to see in people the shining of the Friend."

Rumi as translated by Coleman Barks

Every day I go along hoping to see in people the shining of the Friend and most days in most people I see It if I look hard enough and deep enough. Often time, though, It is buried very deeply and the person herself does not even know what she is hiding. I have learned that seeing the Blessing is more in the eyes of the beholder than in the vessel looked upon. But even though well hidden, there is always a spark, sometimes a flame, and once in a great while a bonfire, a conflagration like the sun.

Do you ever look behind the screen?

"The puppet show looks charming,
but go behind the screen and see who runs it."

Rumi as translated by Coleman Barks

What have you sold your soul for?

"Imagine a man selling his donkey
to be with Jesus.

Now imagine him selling Jesus
to get a ride on a donkey.
This does happen."

Rumi as translated by Coleman Barks

Daddy, where does art come from?

In your light I learn how to love.
In our beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you.

but sometimes I do,
and that light becomes this art.

Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

A Just-finishing Candle

A candle is made to become entirely flame.
In that annihilating moment
it has no shadow.

It is nothing but a tongue of light
describing a refuge.

Looking at this
just finishing candle stub
as someone who is finally safe
from virtue and vice,

the pride and the shame
we claim from those.

Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks