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The Guest House
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This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.
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A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
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Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re 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.
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The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
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Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
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by Rumi
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Taken from SELECTED POEMS by Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks (Penguin Classics, 2004).
This poem by Rumi helps me to accept that Human life will inevitably be full of ups and downs and with these will come a whole host of emotions that need to be acknowledged, thought through, voiced, and dealt with in a spiritual sense. Therefore it encourages me:
To acknowledge the existence of the soul
To welcome our emotions good and bad
To Accept that with hardship comes ease
To learn and grow from the challenges I face