a whole world dancing

Even if the whole world were gripped by sadness

He would not be sad who holds love firm in hand.

And if love makes him dance, even a little,

There are worlds and worlds within that little land.

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

Search word: whole

My health is returning: there is healing and a sense of becoming whole. I have been overcome by feelings of disaster, "end of the world" impressions. This kind of dark night of the soul happens quite frequently if one is alert to it. It is interesting to watch where a new light emerges. It is precisely because a new light is dawning that the darkness was necessary. The new light can never emerge while the old light is holding sway and taking centre stage.

Rumi's verse pictures this scenario using the image of holding "love firm in hand". If there is one thing that one cares for, some thing ever so small or insignificant, it will carry one through. It might be nameless, it might be better even not to name it. It can even be dangerous to name it. The reality of the new light might not turn out to correspond with a naming assigned by the old light. This is how old cynicism can kill new hope: by naming it and reducing it to non-existence.

It doesn't matter what disaster has struck. It doesn't even matter if one is trapped inside a prison or a dreary job. All that matters is that one hold on to one's true love, whatever it is that makes one dance a little, whatever it is that brings spontaneous joy. It is always there but the dawn and springtime and budding flowers evoke it and poets have sung its praise endlessly and will keep doing that forever.

Why wait for budding flowers? Or springtime? Or dawn? Why wait when a collection of Rumi's love poems can lie eternally at hand?