In Rumi's Footsteps

In Rumi's Footsteps
by Kayleen Asbo

​"Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened...
...Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
-Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks


Don't turn on the television
or open the newspapers.
Instead, walk through the woods and smell the damp laurel leaves.
Go to yoga class.
Find your old Chopin books and sit at the piano.
Take up a pen to write a thank you letter to your college mentor.
Savor the sunset with a friend and hold their hand.
Give the man with the cardboard sign 
your leftovers from lunch.
Help the poor mother who doesn't have enough hands by entertaining her squirming toddler while she fishes for change at the check out stand.
Gather wildflowers to put by the bedside of your sweetheart.
Tuck an "I love you" note inside your husband's suitcase 
before he leaves for yet another exhausting business trip.
Tell your imperfect father that you forgive him.
Read Mary Oliver.
Listen to Schubert.
Buy the children with their noses pressed at the window 
an ice cream cone.
Smile at everyone you meet today.
Know that whatever armor clad hardness or seeming perfection is before you,
Inside is a messy and aching being--like you-- 
filled with both unbelievable heartache
and the seed of astonishing beauty.
Be the breeze that blows love and hope
towards that divine spark inside each pair of eyes you see.
Then watch the world become illuminated from within.