Today I went to
Spiritual Journeying's 'Moments of Mindfulness' awayday at St John's Parish Centre in Windlesham. One of the exercises was to choose one or two items from the large eclectic collection and to spend half an hour paying attention to the item you had chosen. I chose two items - one, this poem by Rumi:
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 are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight ...
My other chosen item was a card, this beautiful image of a
lion dozing. (Follow the link if you want to see the image) Having just read the poem, I turned to the card and, studying the photo, felt inspired to write:
The Lion
probably not thinking
about how he looks
with his eyes closed
and his mouth open -
nor about how his hair is doing its own thing today.
Probably not still brooding
over something someone said
some time ago.
Probably not even
concerned
about his next meal.
For the moment it's enough
to doze in the sun
enjoying the sensation
of a full belly.
Enough just to be
a lion king.
I thought some more on Rumi's poem, The Guest House - about the idea
'He may be clearing you out for some new delight'. I know the joy of clearing out the clutter - of making a worktop empty and clean again - a simple, daily joy. I know the joy of clearing out a misconception, a wrong belief, from my mind, my heart, my world - of becoming open to a new thought, a new belief.
I know the freedom of a door closing on the past, of handing in the keys - setting me free from a responsibility that would have been an intrusion in the present - I wrote in this blog back in December 2009 of the shed on my allotment having been burned down. That act of vandalism, unwelcome though it was at the time, made it so much easier to walk away from the allotment - it set me free to move on to full-time work, stable mental health and the delights of my new life.
Proverbs 24:3-4
By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
4 through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.
So how's your home today - what new treasures have you encountered in that private inner world?