The River and Rumi in Full Bloom

The river was in perfect stillness this morning...

I realized that in a few short weeks I would no longer be able to see across to the other side of the shore so easily - once the trees were all in bloom...

No longer would the river be stripped and raw - and naked - but clothed in majesty!

I sat and meditated on the first Reiki precept and chanted the first mantra as well in preparation for for my monthly trade of a massage (for me!) and a Reiki session for my friend Kelly B. - a gifted massage therapist who also literally brought me a whole class of wonderful women new to yoga - which I have the pleasure of teaching on Wednesday mornings. They have been a most delightful group!

As I enjoyed the crisp and clean air on the one quiet morning I have this week - I again reflected on Rumi who - as the book Call to Love by Andrew Harvey so aptly states:

"He knows everything about love...
All the suffering, all the ecstasy, all the beauty."

Here are a few more selections from that book:

In the driest
whitest stretch
of pain's
infinite desert
I lost my sanity
and found
this rose...

****

Love, you have created us
with thirsty hearts
and bound us fast
to the Source of Splendor.
For you, my thorns have blossomed,
my atoms exploded into suns!

****

Just this morning,
contemplation
led me into
the rose garden that is
neither
outside this world
nor within it.

Garden of miracles,
what kind of garden are you?

A garden neither autumn nor winter
makes afraid.

***

It is the time of resurrection,
the time of eternity.
It is the time of generosity,
the sea of lavish splendor.
The treasure of gifts has come,
its shining has flamed out.
See, the rose garden of love
is rising from the world's agony.

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