"Whatever purifies you, is the correct road,
I will try not to define it."
— - Rumi
Ah, Rumi, you touch my heart. I
only recently heard of Rumi in the past couple of years, when I found a quote
that suited me and my love of hoopdance so well that I put it on my business
cards: “we came spinning out of nothingness,
Scattering stars…The stars form a circle, And in the center
we dance. --Rumi”
Where had I been? How had I missed Rumi?
Was Rumi a man or a woman? A woman was my guess. I don’t think I’m all that
well read, honestly, but I should’ve at least heard of her/him, right? I bought
The Essential Rumi, a thick book full of Rumi’s poems on topics of human
emotions, of life, death, love, of the Divine, and I pick it up and read it now
and then.
And it turns out that Rumi, a
thirteenth century Persian mystic, was actually a man (I was wrong).
Still, I hadn’t discovered this
quote until the other night when I was on facebook. Ah, facebook, I’ve learned
so much from your site and your faithful users! Sometimes people put their
favorite quotes in their profile and I love to read those. This one popped out
at me from someone’s page and it’s so apropos. One of my friends recently
mentioned that the older she gets, the less she cares about what other people
think. Right on, sister! That’s what this quote so perfectly embodies to me.
Whatever speaks to my soul,
whatever road purifies me, that is where I want to go. Doesn’t matter what
other people may think, they should not and will not be the ones defining my
path. And conversely, neither should I be the one defining the paths of others.
To me it’s also a lesson in letting go of judgment and, in the process, being
free.
How do we define "purify"? Is it up to each individual? What if our (mine and someone else) roads of purification move in opposite directions? How could this be? The Rumi quote sounds great at first, but the more I think on it the less I like it. What help is it really? How do I know if I'm being purified (if there is such a thing) rather than decaying? These are problem questions I'm dealing with in my own spiritual journey. They are also problems I'm having with general quotes like the one from Rumi.
ReplyDeleteTo purify--simply, to renew. what renews you? If it's outside the norm or what's generally considered 'acceptable', it's a risk to even venture out on the limb, let alone clue other's in that THIS is what makes you feel alive.
ReplyDeleteHow many times are people's path defined by society? Family? Friends? So many live half-lives, never syncing with their passion or their potential, at the expense of what? Risking disapproval from everyone around them (or a few around them)?
That's what it means to me. How could I ever hold someone back from THEIR unique purification? How is that somehow better? Their path is not mine.
My favorite Rumi quote:
ReplyDelete"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep."
Nice post!
Where do you hoop? Are there classes in Noblesville or do you just do it at your house? I teach Nia classes downtown and have wanted to try to add some hooping as an extension of my classes...but I am awful at it!
Thanks,
Jodie (djallenson@yahoo.com)