I was in a bookstore and coffee house in Old Town today, early for a writers workshop. With fifteen minutes to idle away, I scanned the books on the counter near the cashier. The first thing I laid eyes on was a collection of work by Rumi, the mystic and Sufi poet. I have heard of him before, but didn't really have much idea what to expect. I picked up the book, and randomly scanned a few pages.

The first thing I ran across was...

Start your lives over,
everyone is forgiven, no matter what.

Soon after, this, from a poem called A Dying Dog...

Pay attention to those
who want to change so badly they cry
and dissolve into loving kindness and freedom.

A young guy who worked at the bookstore saw me looking at the book, told me of his admiration for Rumi, and pointed out that I was holding a particularly good translation. Rumi was Persian (Iran in axis-of-evil speak). The general theme of his thoughts is essentially about the concept of union with a divine force, his estrangement from that force, and his longing and desire for reunity. I relate this to my own struggle to be reunified with the basic goodness that the Shambhala tradition of Buddhism holds out as our birthright.

Well, it looks like its time for me to have a volume of Rumi work. The right things seem to keep falling into my hands at the right time. Keep it up universe.

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