My Guest House

A copy of Rumi’s, “The Guest House”, surfaced on my desk . . . a welcome arrival. I began re-reading it, quickly noting that the poem’s first lines are a perfect metaphor for how my life continues to unfold in this beautiful, too-often chaotic, uncertain world:

                         “This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.”

The home that helped form my own guest house is pictured above. It’s where I grew up, was nurtured and taught how to be a human . . . being and doing. Lots of arrivals, physical and emotional, welcomed or uninvited, loved or despised, made their way through our doorway. Each “guest” swept through, rearranging pieces of our established “furniture” –  well-worn, predictable patterns and traditional beliefs created through our daily living.

In time, my truth became that nothing lasts forever; everything that arrives also departs through life’s revolving doorway . . . with or without my permission. Rumi’s 94 words within those 5 stanzas remind me that to keep my head and heart balanced among life’s joys and worries, I’m to keep my door open.

OK – door open. Luckily, since my guest house has many rooms, with doors, I get to decide who or what goes where while they’re with me . . . some stowed into basement spaces to declare their stories behind closed doors before they depart; some examining various hallways, and some settling into bright rooms where love, grace and hope can nurture them. It’s within those spaces I practice how not to fear the difficult, how to acknowledge what I cannot control, how to stay open to gifts from unexpected visitors.

The end result? . . . gratitude for arrivals who might just have been “sent as a guide from beyond.” Those, I need.

Jane

 “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.”