STABILITY
I love this poem by Rumi. You can find the whole poem in Rumi Revealed: Selected Poems from the Divan of Shams. It speaks to that natural high you experience when you move beyond the concerns of this physical reality and any ego attachments. Some call this state experiencing the true essence of Love, Bliss, Spirituality, God, the Universe, or the Great Mystery. It is that flow state when you are doing work you truly love, and you lose track of time. In it, you can forget about false perceptions that “everything is wrong” or there is “never enough.”
This is my favorite stanza from the poem. It is interpreted slightly differently in Rumi Revealed, but this is the interpretation that most resonates with me.
All your wavering
is due to the longing to be stable!
Look for instability
until you become stable.
We often avoid what we fear to such an extent that we end up pushing too hard, frustrated in the opposite direction. The friction and tension this causes pushes what we want away and keeps it at bay.
If we can learn to:
Pause & Lean Into the Discomfort of What We Are Trying to Avoid
Remove the “Wrong” vs. “Right” Labels
Accept What Is- Even the Frustrated, Mad, or Angry Emotions
Let It Be Open to Curiosity, Faith, or Trust
Learn Any Lessons Available
That friction dissipates, and the need to keep pushing or try again changes. It no longer has power over you. That is when you become truly free.
The stability example used in the poem is especially poignant for me. I grew up in an unstable environment. I realized recently, after experiencing the most unstable two years of my life, that I have been craving, searching for, and hurting myself to gain stability for most of my adult life. I am still working on getting to the point where it no longer has power over me. Similar to grief, everyone’s process looks different and isn’t linear. I go in waves between thinking, if I was doing this or that “right,” things would be easier, and accepting what is. My goal is to get to a place of freedom where the longing for stability no longer has any power over me.
THE POWER FOUND WHEN WORDS INTERSECT WITH NATURE
I was reading this poem a few months ago in my home office. I looked out the window, and this large branch barely hanging onto the tree in the photograph caught my eye. My husband and I have watched it for almost a year, waiting for it to fall. If you know Georgia, the rain and wind here can be fierce. After every hazardous weather watch we get, including the recent tornado and high winds alert, we look to see if it is still there. It is still holding on. Somehow, this branch has found stability in the instability.
PLANT MEDICINE
The tree supporting this branch is a Red Maple. Native cultures often speak of the Mapel’s spirit, loving the company of humans and spending time with them, which can help balance our energetic bodies and chakras.
