“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten
roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”
~ Rumi
If you are feeling sorrowful, please consider what
Rumi is saying here. Is it simply idealist poetry or is this also true? Can you recall a time when you were stripped of some stuff and swept clean?
Our stuff can be outdated clothing in a closet, unused flee market stuff in a garage, unresolved issue stuff we hold on to, and many other kinds of stuff we no longer need. It's easy to believe that better things will take the place of this released
stuff.
But it can also be a spouse, a relationship, or a pet. It can be a home, work we love, or health. It can be a dream. These are the losses that bring us to tears, to our knees, and to grief. And at such times it may seem that sorrow will last forever.
Can you trust or imagine that the inner you is like a garden? Joy is a perennial
plant. It will return and grow anew again and again.
And again,
Charlene
