Painting by Juan Ezcurdia, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
If your read my last post, you probably saw that I was experiencing a rather “roomy” moment, thanks to the wisdom of my new BFF, 13th century Persian mystic and poet, Rumi.
I resonate with everything about the guy. His words infuse every cell of my being. I can’t take my eyes off of the richly textured portrait of him I found on Google Images [see Feeling Rumi]. He looks round and yummy, like a pear. Rumi is food.
But there is one line in particular that has stayed with me all week. It has wafted in and out of my awareness, lingering like the fragrance of a spring flower in the afternoon rain:
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.”
It has awakened in me these wonderings:
- Am I letting the “beauty I love” be what I do? If so, how? If not, what’s getting in my way?
- How does doing what I love make a difference in the world? Does it even matter?
- Is Rumi’s guidance realistic, or enough (…to pay the bills, for example)?
I must confess that there is this practical side of me that wonders sometimes if the beauty-bliss-passion approach to living can sustain us completely (that is: make things happen, put food on our table, support our families, clear our clutter, etc.)
But I do believe that awakening our senses, and aligning ourselves to all that is beautiful, coherent, and inspiring – even in tiniest ways – can lift our spirits and lighten our loads dramatically. Not to mention, reduce our stress levels, change our lives and homes, affect our families and communities…for the better. All of which can lead to more beauty, more aliveness.
What would happen if we allowed “the beauty of what we love” (or whatever you want to call it: feeling good, being in the flow, joy…) to be our guiding principle? The starting point. What if we made decisions based on what makes our hearts’ sing rather than what our minds, habits, and past experiences dictate or tell us?
What do you think? Anyone care to weigh in?
Oh boy…Big P.S....As I was finishing this post, I “happend” to receive an email that shared a rather substantial quote by another inspiring master. [You’ve got to love the synchronicities that arise when you open up to personal inquiry and self-reflection.] The email was an excerpt by the brilliant Joseph Campbell piping in with (what feels like) a direct response to my wonderings!
Thank you Mr. Campbell, for this:
An individual who puts himself to the task of activating his imaginative life – the life that springs from inside, not from response to outside information and commands – that person can find stimulation… what electrifies and enlivens his own heart and wakes him….
When you follow your bliss – and by bliss, I mean the deep sense of being “in it” and doing what the push is, out of your own existence – you follow that and doors will open when you would not have thought there where going to be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else. There is something about the integrity of a life and the world moves in and helps.”
—Excerpted from Joseph Campbell: The Hero’s Journey, A Biological Portrait, DVD [With special thanks and gratitude to Janet Parker for transcribing these words from the video and sending them to me!]
This is a perfect example of me doing what I love (one of which is writing this blog) and a door opening.
Okay…so now, what do you think? Please share, I’d love to hear from you.
A fascinating question: can following passion, beauty, and bliss pay our bills too? Certainly aligning with that vibration/inspiration helps. But if I was to plunge into what truly makes my heart sing would that appear in (say) the marketing resources that appear to me that will support the unfolding and full and *successful* expression of my business?
This is an intriguing question! In the past few months I’ve been working with redesigning my biz, and developing some marketing/biz skills. Resources have appeared, and I see that they have aligned with my sense of beauty, soul, and abundance in some ways, and not in others. In one way, I see this as an expression that the Universe always provides you with what you need, and often in a sideways manner–meaning that if you attached yourself to one particular view of beauty and design–you’d miss the answering of your request for help altogether!
And these resources *have* challenged and expanded my ideas of the possible in some really essential ways, even while I’ve cringed at the inevitable sales letters and “act now–or lose the opportunity” language that has often accompanied the information and opportunity I’ve sought.
I wonder: as I deepen more intensely and confidently into my own ‘beauty’–as I enter more into alignment with the answer to the question of ‘just what exactly is the healing I offer, to whom, and what results from it” if I will attract resources that are ever more completely in alignment with who/what I understand myself to be.
This is not to discount the assistance I’ve already received! I suppose as one steps more deeply on the path, certain types of questions are resolved, and what begins to appear is a more clear and shining path.
Maybe :-).
Blessings and Beauty,
Jane