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Move Within
Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.
.............................................................- Rumi
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48 comments:
"don't move the way fear makes you move"--
Some very good advise.
As with all wisdom, easier to follow on some days than others.
Barry, it's human nature to fear. It's healthy sometimes, normal, natural. It's bad when it paralyzes. I don't know how you can avoid it some days.
Hi Ruthie! This poem by Rumi will need to be my mantra during the move. xo
Oh don't some people just have a way with words.
The statue is so beautiful. Statues and painting have always had an immediate and strong effect on me. In college, sometimes we would go on dates to the art museums...and we would "eat" the art just as Tom Jones and his inammorata lustily ate roasted chicken in the film "Tom Jones".
Words, too. I can never finish reading Anais Nin because I can't sit still.
God, life can be exhilirating!
What a beautiful statue - the hands are really lifelike!
Ah, Rumi - he can turn a phrase, can't he!
Your blog is lovely. And the photo makes me think it's a person painted and posed as a statue- is it??
http://excerpts-kristin.blogspot.com/
Usually fear paralyzes me. I become a statue with a mind racing 100 mph but not going anywhere. It's difficult to rise above such primal instincts. Rumi's words are always wise. I wish I could put all the infinite wisdom around me to good use but as of late all I seem to do is feed on it without assimilating it. Beautiful statue, Ruth.
Just what I needed to hear today. The missing piece that helped me make sense of the various messages I've received lately in dreams and the most recent Brezny horoscope. Something (fear) must die for new creation to happen. A difficult path, but at least that: a path.
"Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move."
Sorry, had to italicize...you--or Rumi ;-)must be psychic; those lines are beyond apt today. Thank you.
A great painting amazes me ... A great piece of sculpture astonishes me! How can someone make a piece of clay look so realistic?
Beautiful statue.
For me, Ruth, the poem sums up how I felt when my mom was so sick right before her death ...
... As well as after her death ...
... Just keep moving, even if it's only one minute at a time ... And don't let the worry of the hows and the whats and the whys take away from the person who is close to death or who just passed.
Thanks, Ruth.
Beautiful poem and statue - much more realistic than the usual "living statues".
California Girl, deal!
You said it, Babs. I've been "listening" for words for two days straight - to say what I feel, and when I picked up my Daily Rumi, he'd already said it.
Montag, all that art and words you ingested and digested is reborn in your words, you know. Your piece today was exhilarating as I already told you.
Did you realize the photo is of a living statue? I was so taken with the photo when I found it opening PhotoScape yesterday, I contacted the photographer for permission to post it.
Delphyne, it took me a couple of close looks before I realized the hands are alive. I like seeing this living statue in a different light than on a NY or Dublin street corner.
Kristin, that was a very successful first visit! Welcome, and Afferin as we say in Turkish for brava! You were the first to notice she is a live statue.
Claudia, don't know if you are like me, but I go in cycles and seasons. Just as in sleep, sometimes I go weeks or months feeling as though I am semi-conscious and that something is working under the surface on all the data in my head and body.
I was stunned by Carl's photo which really made her seem like stone. Well and her own disguise.
Ing, death and life are simultaneous, always. And they also create a cycle. I think we just don't step back and see it a lot of the time. I know you will find balance, my friend.
DS, maybe it's in the air. I've been feeling this and trying to let words fill in the gaps for days, but nothing came. So it's Rumi who's psychic.
Cottage Girl, sometimes it helps. It's hard to keep moving when you don't feel like it. And as for Barry, when every day could bring a surprise that is not pleasant, it's hard to not move the way fear moves. I don't know any answers. I have good days and bad days. Yesterday when I came across this photograph and then the words Rumi spoke seven centuries ago that a scribe wrote down, I was relieved. This is what art is, to find emotional expression through someone else's work.
We have a choice to step out on a path of adventure or to be frozen in place as a stone statue. It is up to each of us to choose the path we are willing to take. The old adage comes to mind "nothing ventured, nothing gained"
its a tough job being a human Ruth,
There is fear at every step, fear of different kinds. Its not always the fear of death.
Fear keeps us alive. Lot easier living as an animal but they too live under constant fear. i move along the time with caution. Time does not stop for any one, we all move.
Yes, sometimes, Dakota Bear. But sometimes, like now, I don't want any adventure, I just want to be quiet. I feel like a plucked chicken.
It is true, rauf, fear is healthy and necessary for survival. I wonder if Rumi was talking about withdrawing inside, not out of fear, but to understand myself and be at peace with what is. I know people who worry and fret and are afraid of every bad thing happening to them or their children. That is how they move. They don't find any strength or peace inside themselves to face what a day brings. They just wish to control what comes, and no one can do that.
I would like to give you a great big hug for posting this on the very day I need to bring a poem to a dinner party.
This profound poem will start a marvelous conversation.
It's hard not to move the way fear makes you move - it takes courage.
Sending you off with a return hug, Dutchbaby - wish I could serve your dinner and listen in.
This post - the photograph, the poem - are talking to myself today. And they're talking for me when I couldn't find words.
Hi Ruth, Rumi is so wonderful and wise... don't move the way fear makes you move. I like that thought,ever cautious i tend to act and react in this manner.
The statue is so life like just beautiful. thanks for you always inspiring posts xoxox C
What would the world be without Rumi and Gibran? They are the reason I know that being someone's physical love is not essential. The spirit within is moving enough and spills out and everywhere. He is the reason I write 'Beloved' in my poetry... a sufi expression that I love in any language. What would Rumi think I wonder, to part of the blogosphere :)
Rumi makes my life better.
First you must let fear move you so you will know how not to move.
:-)
Beautiful dear friend, just beautiful.
Love Renee xoxo
Cathy, apparently Rumi just spoke his words, and a scribe wrote them down.
The statue IS alive!! I love Carl's photo.
Dear Shaista, I read that Rumi is the most popular poet in the U.S. It is rather remarkable after seven centuries, from another county, another religion from our founders'. He is very accessible, but also with depth. He manages often to have said something I was searching for words to say, like this time.
Gemma, you make a valid point. Probably true most ways around most things. I think we undervalue the "negative" emotions - for what they can teach us. Thank you for helping me see that.
Sweet Renee, none of it was me. But I'm glad you found it here. Big hugs.
I enjoyed the poem. Very thought-provoking. The statue is beautiful.
I don't think I can agree on all points here. Keep walking seems fine, but if we didn't try to see through the distances ... and try to move there, where would we be today?
I could tell right away that the hands were real. The head could pass for marble very easily though. It's really beautiful.
For me the poem suggests learning to live in the moment, but being able to see what's ahead in a thoughtful and not agitated way. Something I've struggled with.
Pat, I think I would suffocate in all that paint - well not literally. I think they have to leave some part of the body open to breathe.
Peter, I think it's one thing to plan and prepare, in our minds and in our work. But what I used to do was ridiculous - I couldn't live in the moment at all and only focused on doing the next thing. I've been working for a few years now on enjoying and focusing on this moment and what I'm doing right now. I think Rumi used to sit in the marketplace and see the comings and goings, all the striving for business. Of course it's necessary, but stopping and looking around is necessary too. You know that very well. There has to be balance.
Hi dear Susie, me too, big struggles. After some years I can see a big difference. Sometimes I even enjoy just brushing my teeth now!
I used to always feel that I should be doing something else, no matter what I was doing.
I can but agree with your last comments! :-)
Ruth - I do think you are right that Rumi is refering to withdrawing inwards to understand oneself better in order to be at peace...your poem offering today has given me something to mull over the next few days:) Thank-you...
I for one did not realize that photo was of a living sculpture until I read it in the comments!...I feel that I should have been more observant..more aware of the humanness of it...I feel like I missed its essence...
You may not realize it, but it feels like you wrote this post or found this quote just for me.
The living statue is the perfect complement.
its sooo true! nowhere to go except within...
Rumi, as always amazing wisdom!
Oliag, the statue struck me like that too. I did not notice right away that she was alive - when I did I felt both disappointed and inspired.
Jeanie, it seems many of us needed the words seven centuries later, on that day.
Merging Point, it's where we merge what's outside with ourselves.
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