God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of of us,
A passion, a longing-pain.
Remember the lips where the wind-breath originated,
And let your note be clear.
Don’t try to end it.
Be your note.
I’ll show you how it’s enough.
Go up on the roof at night
In this city of the soul.
Let everyone climb on their roofs
And sing their notes!
Sing loud!
Rumi, 14th Century Persian poet
I’ll show you how it’s enough, Rumi says. His notion of how your life, my life, all of our lives, work sounds a lot like courage to me. Our lives work when we do our heart. That’s what the English word courage means. Take the Latin roots, what they became in French, and turn it into an English word and that’s what you get–courage–doing your heart.
But, doing my heart can be so terrifying. Whether you believe in God or deity in any form or not, Rumi’s notion here is that life sings through all of us, like someone playing a flute. Life is the wind-breath that is always blowing through us. Be your note! I need your notes. All of us, standing on the rooftop of life being our notes make the music of a meaningful life.
As for that terrifying part? Well, we wouldn’t call something courageous if it were just easy, now would we. So, I’m listening. We all are. We want to hear your note.
Be your note!
~Bob Patrick
Beautifully written muse about the power of us united yet, still, we are single players. The wind blowing through each person who will play that wind through their instrument and coalesce with the orchestra.
I really think that these words of wisdom need to be published in paperback. I still read mine from the last publishing.