RUMI'S "HOUSE GUEST"

13th century Persian poet and scholar Rumi describes life as A Guest House..... 

This being human is a Guest House.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some monetary awareness comes,

as an unexpected visitor.

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.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Rumi paints an image of the human mind as a house for guests, which are our emotions.  We never know which guest will unexpectedly arrive at our door. Rumi explains that each guest, pleasant or unsettling, brings a broom to sweep through the rooms of our mind, clearing and making room for new.  Rumi's words encourage us to welcome and entertain all guests.

Looking back over the years, I can easily understand Rumi's message.  The tragedies in my life left me with flashes of a Great Force Beyond My Understanding.  Without those "unfavorable house guests," there's no way I could have otherwise gotten a glimpse of that Force that sustained me. I'm not saying that I had some 'born again' revelation, but something other than myself kept me going. 

For sure there have been times that I would've rather slammed the door on a "house guest," but it was by my eventual acceptance that bolstered my inner armor.  Once we are strengthened, that strength never leaves us.  Just this past year In our home, in plain view, we have the words carved in wood, IT IS WHAT IT IS.  Both of us have learned to comfort our hearts by accepting the unacceptable.