"There is a field...I'll meet you there"

A place free from the shadow of our shortcomings and even the expectations of our achievements...

Friday, August 16, 2024

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
Doesn’t make any sense.
           - Rumi, excerpted from “A Great Wagon”
 
There is something about this poem that strikes a chord with many people, as if there is a collective longing to be able to put down all the posturing and performance and just connect on a pure level, free from the shadow of our shortcomings or even the expectations of our achievements. A longing for a place we can meet each other on a plane of simple, down-to-the bone being beyond words.
 
It’s not just this poem by Rumi, a Persian poet from the 13th century, that strikes a chord with many Westerners. An abundance of his poems reflect an almost mystical longing for wholeness, for beauty, for a relationship with the divine, whatever that may mean for someone. There are some of those same overtones in Mary Oliver’s poetry, another poet that resonates with many.
 
I take this resonance to mean Rumi and Mary Oliver are like “guides from beyond,”* whispering in our ear, Get closer, get closer, get closer to what your heart is telling you. The guides we must have been looking for.
 
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*The Guest House (another great Rumi poem just as a bonus)
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary 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.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.