just another day

You, who make all my hardship easy

And the garden, trees, flowers, drunk with your gifts;

The rose is drunk, the thorn is lost in dream;

Pour one more cup, they'll join in your wine's stream.

#544: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Search word: easy

There is an easy flow to the ink in my pen today but still the words come hard. Today marks the end of an era for me and my family. I don't know what tomorrow will bring. In this time of uncertainty I'm glad I have this routine to turn to, like a rock or anchor in the midst of turbulence. I can't help but be affected by recent images of the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in and around the US town of New Orleans. These remind me that stability and calm cannot be taken for granted. We all feel less comfortable, less secure, when we see this kind of upheaval.

I pray that we - my son and I - will return home safely, that the cat will be safe and the house intact. Strange to pray for that on a day like this. We are setting out to attend a final competitive event and the fiery urge to win should be uppermost. Instead, a sense of life's fragility pervades.

I can see in this verse that Rumi's "you", his beloved, creates for him a sacred space in which hard edges are made smooth. A haze of drunkenness and dream surrounds each item of beauty or pain and the edges of distinction are softened. I feel like I am in that garden now, sipping that "one more cup" and letting the simplicity of being soak into my soul.

Today is just another day.