Rumi

Rumi's masterful weaving of words has the ability to take you to another world.  I've chosen three of my favourites. Read them slowly, savour each line, each pause...watch and feel the emotion rise within you (if it does) and just enjoy. 

“Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”  ― Rumi

STAY CLOSE,  MY HEART - by Rumi

Stay close, my heart, to the one who knows your ways;

Come into the shade of the tree that allays has fresh flowers.Don't stroll idly through the bazaar of the perfume-markers:Stay in the shop of the sugar-seller.


Anyone can trick out of a thing of straw,
And make you take it for gold


In each pot on the fire you find very different things.
Not all sugarcanes have sugar, not all abysses a peak;
Not all eyes possess vision, not every sea is full of pearls.


Only your drunken ecstasy can pierce the rock's hard heart!
Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread
That doesn't want to go through the needle's eye!


Hurry and get out of this wind, for the weather is bad.
And when you've left this storm, you will come to a fountain;
You'll find a Friend there who will always nourish your soul.
Flowering always with sweet light-fruit, whose growth is interior.

If you don't find true balance, anyone can deceive you;

Don't squat with a bowl before every boiling pot;

O nightingale, with your voice of dark honey! Go on lamenting!

Surrender yourself, and if you cannot be welcomes by the Friend,

The awakened heart is a lamp; protect it by the him of your robe!

And with your soul always green, you'll grow into a tall tree

A Moment of happiness - by Rumi

A moment of happiness,
you and I sitting on the verandah,
apparently two, but one in soul, you and I.
We feel the flowing water of life here,
you and I, with the garden's beauty
and the birds singing.
The stars will be watching us,
and we will show them
what it is to be a thin crescent moon.
You and I unselfed, will be together,
indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.
The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar
as we laugh together, you and I.
In one form upon this earth,
and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

Let go of your worries - by Rumi

Let go of your worries

and be completely clear-hearted,

like the face of a mirror

that contains no images.

If you want a clear mirror,

behold yourself

and see the shameless truth,

which the mirror reflects.

If metal can be polished

to a mirror-like finish,

what polishing might the mirror

of the heart require?

Between the mirror and the heart

is this single difference:

the heart conceals secrets,

while the mirror does not

Warm and Fuzzy

I had planned a slightly different post today - and then a friend sent me this.

It's Friday, the weekend is here - and these just made me grin from ear to ear. I've chosen my favourites below but really, I loved them all!

All these pictures in this post have been taken from this website and piece by LilyBoo - a BIG fat thanks to her for sharing the pics with the world, they have made my day!

Visit the website for the rest when you need to feel warm and fuzzy: Buzzfeed.com

Although, this is probably my number one :)

Snap Happy

I do like a good photo. This morning I happened to look at the photos on my phone and realised I had taken over 2000 shots over the last year. Think it's perhaps time to get me a proper camera.   

Ordinary people, Extraordinary things

I came across this article in The Age the other week - "The ordinary heroes who stood up"

It talks of a man called Silas who was a Hutu soldier in the army in Rwanda, when the country entered into probably one of the most violent times of its history. In 1994 as the Hutu's began their massacre of the Tutsis, Silas began smuggling the Tutsis across the border to safety.  He rescued over 50 people before his fellows soldiers realised what he was doing and then he, too, had to escape. 

In a world that seems to only report on the cruelty human beings inflict upon each other, stories like the one of Silas remind me that there are amazing acts of compassion, kindness and bravery out there.  

On a much smaller scale, the every day people doing (extra) ordinary things can still make a difference - especially to those they help. 

Years ago, two 17 year old girls and had just moved to Melbourne, Australia. They had just begun their final year of high school and one night set off giggling into the city to grab a late snack. 

As they jauntily walked down the street with not a care in the world, one of girls stepped on a discarded needle.  

On this same street, in the heart of Melbourne city, there lived a man. He was ragged and filthy with clothes that hung on a body starved for years of a decent meal. The two girls had walked by him numerous times before, barely giving him a glance, much less a single thought. He spent most of his days begging for spare change and blending in with the grey and brown buildings around him. 

This man had a choice that night. He could sit in his little corner and watch the two young girls panicking at the protruding needle stuck in her shoe, or he could do what he chose to do next. 

He ran over to them grabbing two coins and a tissue out of his back pocket. He asked the girl to sit down as he used the coins to pull the needle out and wrapped it in the napkin. He then looked at her and said, "There ya go love, doesn't look like it got ya skin, you'll be fine." And with that, he disappeared around the corner as quickly as he came. 

I remember that night like it happened just yesterday. My best friend had felt her heart stabbed with fear when she looked at what she had stepped on. And I hadn't a clue what to do. The relief we felt when this beautiful human being came over to help us was huge. All we could manage at the time was a half breathless thank-you. 

The next time I saw him was years later. I was walking down the street and there he stood, holding his cup out for spare change. 

I held out my hand and said hello. I was happy to finally see him and to properly thank him for his act of kindness so many years before. I wondered if he would even remember it. 

But he looked at me blankly, swaying from side to side and began mumbling things I couldn't understand. He wasn't that young man he was when I had first seen him, he seemed to have fallen deep into another world that was no longer in touch with the world most of us were still a part of. 

I put some change into his cup and thanked him for his help that night. I said a small prayer that he should be kept safe wherever his journey in life takes him. 

Looking back, I wish I had done more, tried to help him in some way. Not just to repay him for his kindness, but to show him that what he did really meant a lot to us. I hoped on some level he knew that. 

This stranger's act of kindness has stayed with me to this day and I know it will stay with me for a long time yet. 

Whenever I feel the weight of the world's cruelty, I remember stories like the one of Silas, as well as my own story, of the night a kind stranger helped two distraught young girls, and walked away expecting nothing.   

Death is nothing at all...

This is one of the most beautifully written poems I've come across, written by Henry Scott Holland.  Death scares me. Not my own, but when it chooses to touch those I love. The pain that comes with the loss of someone who I eat with, sleep with, love with and live life with.  

When I read this poem, the words spoke directly to my heart...I hope it does the same for you.

Death is nothing at all - Henry Scott Holland 

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way

which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.