Rumi Volume 3 – I choose to love you in silence

I choose to love you in silence…
For in silence I find no rejection,

I choose to love you in loneliness…
For in loneliness no one owns you but me,

I choose to adore you from a distance…
For distance will shield me from pain,

I choose to kiss you in the wind…
For the wind is gentler than my lips,

I choose to hold you in my dreams…
For in my dreams, you have no end.

When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray

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.

Through Love all that is bitter will sweet.
Through Love all that is copper will be gold.
Through Love all dregs will turn to purest wine.
Through Love all pain will turn to medicine.
Through Love the dead will all become alive.
Through Love the king will turn into a slave!
Through Love.
The very center of your heart is where life begins – the most beautiful place on earth.
Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.
Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself in this love.
When you lose yourself in this love,
you will find everything.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Do not fear this loss,
For you will rise from the earth
and embrace the endless heavens.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from this earthly form,
For this body is a chain
and you are its prisoner.
Smash through the prison wall
and walk outside with the kings and princes.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself at the foot of the glorious King.
When you lose yourself
before the King
you will become the King.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from the black cloud
that surrounds you.
Then you will see your own light
as radiant as the full moon.

Now enter that silence.
This is the surest way
to lose yourself. . . .

What is your life about, anyway?—
Nothing but a struggle to be someone,
Nothing but a running from your own silence.

This world of two gardens, both so beautiful. This world, a street where a funeral is passing. Let us rise together and leave this world, as water goes bowing down itself to the sea. From gardens to the gardener, from grieving to a wedding feast. We tremble like leaves about to let go. There is no avoiding pain, or feeling exiled, or the taste of dust. But also we have a green-winged longing for the sweetness of the friend. These forms are evidence of what cannot be shown. Here is how it is to go into that: Rain that has been leaking into the house decides to use the downspout. The bent bowstring straining at our throats releases and becomes the arrow. Mice quivering in fear of the house cat suddenly change to half-grown lion cubs, afraid of nothing. So let us begin the journey home, with love and compassion for guides, and grace protecting. Let your soul turn into an empty mirror that passionately wants to reflect Joseph. Hand him your present. Now let silence speak. As that begins, we will start out.