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 are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep
your house empty of its furniture.... Rumi
_________________
Rumi reminds me of Jesus, turning everything upside down in one of his parables or descriptions of the realm of God. We are supposed to welcome these unruly, disturbing, nasty, scary, feelings and thoughts? We want to get rid of them, and push away those thoughts and feelings by getting and spending, eating, drinking, sleeping – anything to not have to feel them.
Early on in this ministry, when we had a hermitage,
I learned that something was always trying to invade
Holy Ground – the space set apart for holy activity, reverence,
and devotion. In the cabin out in the pasture on the shore of a lake,
it was mice, a snake, even a duck, not to mention the spiders
and determined Virginia creeper vines that were getting in my hermitage.
I learned from these unruly guests that one must keep reclaiming
the interior and the outer spaces for our attention to Holiness.
Some critter was always trying to crawl over the windowsill or
slither under the door. I would fight those invaders, sweeping
down cobwebs. I hoped and prayed the harmless black snake
would not show himself when there were guests. I read up on ways
to keep the mice away. In the end nothing really worked.
I had yet to come across Rumi, who says, “Leave the door wide open!
these varmints are teachers.” And they were teachers.
However, I was a slow student and still am. And so was the petulant prophet, Jonah.
Did you know the book of Jonah was probably
written by a woman? Click on the link below
to find out more.
Click Below
| 
