Christmas Thoughts, From Rumi and Me

Christ is the population of the world

and every object as well.  There is no room

for hypocrisy.  Why use bitter soup for healing

when sweet water is everywhere?

(Rumi)

and from me:

As Christmas ends,

here on the other side of 12 21 12,

make change in the world, dear friends,

by being the Jesus in yourselves. . . 

wishing you a blessed holiday,

every single day.

And again, from Rumi:

Lovers think they're looking for each other,

but there's only one search: wandering 

this world is wandering that, both inside one

transparent sky.  In here

there is no dogma and no heresy.

The miracle of Jesus is himself, not what he said or did

about the future.  Forget the future.

I'd worship someone who could do that.

On the way you may want to look back, or not,

but if you can say There's nothing ahead,

there will be nothing there.

Stretch your arms and take hold the cloth of your clothes

with both hands.  The cure for pain is in the pain.

Good and bad are mixed.  If you don't have both,

you don't belong with us.

When one of us gets lost, is not here, he must be inside us.

There's no place like that anywhere in the world.

(Rumi - both translated by Coleman Barks)

(both photos taken at Cheestnut Ridge Park, 

in Orchard Park, New York)

Today Is Your Happy Ever After

( from: mapmaker )

As we all know,

tomorrow is 12 21 2012.

Not a perfect palindrome, but nigh close to one.

And it is, according to interpretations of

ancient Mayan reports,

the End of the World.

I read somewhere, in fact, that 11:00 am is a time

to be wary of.

Now, I'm not certain if that accounts for

New Zealand Time,

Eastern Standard Time,

Lunar Standard Time,

Central Time,

Greenwich Mean Time,

or 

what to do about the 

International Dateline.

But either way, be on your best behavior,

because no one truly knows the hour,

but we do have the date,

and that's tomorrow.

Now, I don't mean to be flippant about this matter.

At a certain point in my blogging career,

I was pretty focused on getting folks to straighten up their acts.

Indeed, I wrote a rather naive entry about 11/11/11,

proposing that everyone should be on their best behavior from then until now,

and maybe, just maybe,

if this truly to be the judgement hour,

the Lord On High would forgive us for our transgressions,

if we were to correct them for a year.

But, judging by the events of the last year, 

no one paid attention.

Indeed, it sometimes appears

that evil has compounded,

reaching heights never imagined before.

I need

not give examples, just

fill in a few for yourself.  There are plenty.

( wikipedia )

Will the world end, though?

Come back on Saturday,

by then we'll know.

In the meantime, remember:

if the end is nigh,

today is the day to say

your goodbyes,

to say your "I'm sorry"s

to tell mom you love her so,

to sit in silence

and listen to snow~

I suspect we won't get off so easy,

we won't disappear in a big bang.

We'll do it to ourselves.

We'll destroy our planet,

we'll kill our children,

we'll refuse to compromise,

we'll perpetuate wars on

unsolvable problems,

we'll go on and on and on,

until someday, slowly, we'll realized 

we're dying,

and no one's coming to save us,

or command us,

or damn us.

Our cruelest judge,

when that time comes,

will be ourselves,

each solitary, self-hating self:

as we look in the mirror of our past deeds,

we'll see,

the evil has existed in you and me.

So, too, does the good.

The attitude I've taken,

and the reason I haven't written here for awhile

(that plus my terrible busy-ness!),

is because I believe

Today

is My Happy Ever After.

Every morning,

I wake up

is the day I've lived all my life to live.

And yes,

I've lived them,

one by one.

You, too.

As you prepare for Apocalypse,

live today as it is

your only day,

your happy ever after,

and every person you encounter

is here for your joy.

And then it won't matter

what happens tomorrow.

Because tomorrow will be

just another day

like today.

True Communion

( from: Food52 )

There are words we pass

To pass the time

And words of civility,

And words, like coins,

That fill that rhyme,

And too many of acrimony.

These words we spend

Without a thought,

Disregarding the ceremony

That occurs each time

We pass a word,

Like bread,

From mouth to mouth.

There is a wordspring,

Deep inside, where

Language lingers,

Brooding,

Aching to bond the hearts and minds

Of each sad, solitary human.

So we must treat the sharing of words,

As it should be, as

Communion,

Because in sharing words,

Like bread,

We find immortal union.

(From: Chopra )