Rumi!

Eaten by flame and
smoked out into the sky

This is most fortunate

What's unlucky is not to change
and disappear

---

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 honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

---

Look at your hand
Closing your fist always preceding opening it
A hand that is always closed or open
Is a crippled hand.
So your heart always contracts and expands,
Just like a bird needs to close and open
its wings to fly.

---

Come, come again
Whoever you are
Whether you are infidel, idolater or wanderer
Whether you have broken your vows a hundred times
Ours is not a caravan of despair
This is the gate of hope
Come, come yet again, come.

---

This is now. Now is,
all there is. Don't wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.

Sit at the Beloved's table,
feast with gusto, drink your fill

then dance
the way branches
of jasmine and cypress
dance in a spring wind.

The green earth
is your cloth;
tailor your robe
with dignity and grace.

---

If your knowledge of fire has been turned
to certainty by words alone,
then seek to be cooked by the fire itself.
Don't abide in borrowed certainty.
There is no real certainty until you burn;
if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.