Dec202021
Words of WonderIsn't-that-something-Rumi

I
like when
the music happens like this:

Something in His eye grabs hold of a
tambourine in
me,

then I turn and lift a violin in someone else,
and they turn, and this turning
continues;

it has
reached you now. Isn’t that
something?

by Rumi, interpreted by Daniel Ladinsky

 

What is it for you that Rumi is referring to? What is the music?

There’s something about this time of year (and I’m speaking here for those of us in mid-winter in the northern hemisphere), which can prompt us to look inwards for a source of light. Here in Herefordshire we haven’t seen the sun for a week now and the nights are long. For me, the music in this poem may be many things, but certainly the light of love and joy comes into it.

Christmas time, for those who celebrate it, is about the birth of love, which is an inner light in the darkness for sure. But where there is love there is also lost, unlived or broken love and many of us navigate these waters over the festive period too.

This poem speaks of our profound interdependence as human beings. We depend on each other instinctually for love and joy, for upliftment (whether spiritual or not). It has reached you, Rumi says – might ‘it’ be the spirit of joy perhaps? And you lift your tambourine to join in the harmony. And might you turn to the next person and see their heart lift as you pass it on?

How might you be able to act in this spirit over the festive period?

Wishing you love and joy!

Photo by febri sym on Unsplash

Author: Fay Adams

Fay Adams trained to teach mindfulness under the guidance of well-known teacher Rob Nairn, whilst living on the Holy Isle retreat island off the west coast of Scotland. She now teaches courses and retreats in mindfulness, compassion, insight and engaged mindfulness around the UK with the Mindfulness Association and she is a tutor on the University of Aberdeen's Studies in Mindfulness MSc. Fay is a dedicated meditation practitioner of 15 years. Fay was originally drawn to mindfulness in her twenties because of her chronic pain. Throughout her 6 years of living on Holy Isle in a small meditation hut, she immersed herself in discovering what the pain was all about. In the process she began to find a new way to inhabit mind, body and community. Ultimately, as well as (mostly) freeing her from the pain, this has become a deeply rich basis for living life fully. Her practice was formed and matured within a Tibetan Buddhist context. More recently it has been influenced by Reggie Ray's somatic practice and is now also coached in a love of nature and the Earth and she finds that deep ecology, as taught by Joanna Macy and others, is a path towards wisdom. Fay now lives on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border with her partner and son.