Lord, the air smells good today, straight from the mysteries
within the inner courts of God.
A grace like new clothes thrown
across the garden, free medicine for everybody.
The trees in their prayer, the birds in praise,
the first blue violets kneeling.
Whatever came from Being is caught up in being, drunkenly
forgetting the way back.
~ RUMI
This poem, with its birds and flowers and fresh air, evokes a springtime scene. A bit too early for that here on March 1st in Michigan, one of a few calm days this week in between snow storms. But in another way the poem is timeless: it is about joy and recklessness and abundance. The recklessness is throwing the new clothes across the garden; the abundance is free medicine for everybody; and the joy is found in celebrating a moment of being alive and of connecting to the Infinite / the Ultimate / the Divine through prayer and praise.
Rumi’s poem challenges me with its exuberant recklessness. It is over the top. And it speaks to me because today I am seeking grace and prayer and praise. In a snow-covered neighborhood as the world turns from winter to spring, from Imbolc to Ostara, from February to March. Like all of us, I’m trying to be my best self and there is only one day to that: today.
I am seeking grace and prayer and praise in a nation struggling with gun violence, oppression of women and trans people, and rampant economic inequality. This makes me cling to the free medicine for everybody line of the poem even more: abundance is possible. Human love is abundant; the grace of nature—birds and flowers or snow and lengthening days—is with us whenever we connect with it.
Today I can choose to connect prayerfully to the mystery of Nature, of Life Unfolding – not in a way that seeks escape from the world’s problems or my own, but in a way that puts everything into perspective and sees everything through the lens of infinite love.
PRAYER:
Blessed be the words of the poet Rumi, translated and preserved across centuries. May we all be inspired today to connect with the birds and with the air, to praise life and this moment of suspended time.
Through love may we bring forth the best in ourselves and in our world.
May it be so.
Rev. Andrew Frantz
within the inner courts of God.
A grace like new clothes thrown
across the garden, free medicine for everybody.
The trees in their prayer, the birds in praise,
the first blue violets kneeling.
Whatever came from Being is caught up in being, drunkenly
forgetting the way back.
~ RUMI
This poem, with its birds and flowers and fresh air, evokes a springtime scene. A bit too early for that here on March 1st in Michigan, one of a few calm days this week in between snow storms. But in another way the poem is timeless: it is about joy and recklessness and abundance. The recklessness is throwing the new clothes across the garden; the abundance is free medicine for everybody; and the joy is found in celebrating a moment of being alive and of connecting to the Infinite / the Ultimate / the Divine through prayer and praise.
Rumi’s poem challenges me with its exuberant recklessness. It is over the top. And it speaks to me because today I am seeking grace and prayer and praise. In a snow-covered neighborhood as the world turns from winter to spring, from Imbolc to Ostara, from February to March. Like all of us, I’m trying to be my best self and there is only one day to that: today.
I am seeking grace and prayer and praise in a nation struggling with gun violence, oppression of women and trans people, and rampant economic inequality. This makes me cling to the free medicine for everybody line of the poem even more: abundance is possible. Human love is abundant; the grace of nature—birds and flowers or snow and lengthening days—is with us whenever we connect with it.
Today I can choose to connect prayerfully to the mystery of Nature, of Life Unfolding – not in a way that seeks escape from the world’s problems or my own, but in a way that puts everything into perspective and sees everything through the lens of infinite love.
PRAYER:
Blessed be the words of the poet Rumi, translated and preserved across centuries. May we all be inspired today to connect with the birds and with the air, to praise life and this moment of suspended time.
Through love may we bring forth the best in ourselves and in our world.
May it be so.
Rev. Andrew Frantz
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