To be fully human is to feel the full range of human emotions. Perhaps we are free to pursue happiness, but in no way is happiness guaranteed. We may know the highest heights if we have felt the lowest lows. What then, is the proper response to emotional challenges? Rumi to the Rescue!
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Poem by the Sufi mystic, Rumi, from a translation by Coleman Barks. Portrait of Rumi from the public domain (i.e., Wikipedia). I snagged the beautiful blue mosaic off of the cover of a book called Rumi: Bridge to the Soul: Journeys into the Music and Silence of the Heart. See also, Rumi: The Book of Love.
