“The heart is a / Ten thousand-stringed instrument / That can only be tuned with / Love.” ~ Hafiz
Hafiz
Do You Recognize Your Wonder?
“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.” ~ Hafiz
Life & Love Always Win
Every time I see a dandelion growing through a crack in the sidewalk, or see baby birds take their first flight, or feel a baby grasp my finger I know life wins. I know love wins. I know when I am in the presence of someone who knows how to love and how to enjoy the wonders of life. It is etched on their faces, it is in the sparkle of their eyes, and it is in the message their heart sends to all who come by. The Sufi mystic Hafiz wrote, “The heart is a / The thousand-stringed instrument / That can only be tuned with / Love.” When our heart is tuned with love, we know that life is love and love is life. The two are intertwined and inseparable. Here’s hoping love is fine tuning your heart and all the blessing life can offer come your way.
A Love Like This Is Something Else
“And still, after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe Me.”
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.”
― Hafiz
Finding Peace with the Past: Lessons on Self-Compassion and Grace
In this heartfelt episode, we explore the profound lessons of self-compassion, forgiveness, and recognizing our sacred worth. Drawing inspiration from Anthony de Mello’s story, Taking Flight, and Robert Hayden’s powerful poem, Those Winter Sundays, we dive into the emotional challenges of regret and guilt. How do we heal from what’s left unsaid, undone, or unappreciated?
Through the lens of noir films and the timeless wisdom of Sufi poets Rumi and Hafiz, we discover ways to transform regret into healing and growth. Rumi’s The Guest House reminds us that all emotions, even those of sorrow and regret, are guides. Hafiz’s Now is the Time calls for forgiveness and a sacred truce with ourselves.
If you’ve ever struggled with self-criticism or wished for a path to inner peace, this episode offers hope and practical wisdom. Join us on this journey to let go of guilt, embrace grace, and find the sacred in every action.
Someone Should Start Laughing: A Poem by Hafiz
Someone Should Start Laughing
Hafiz
I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
How are you?
I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
What is God?
If you think that the Truth can be known
From words,
If you think that the Sun and the Ocean
Can pass through that tiny opening Called the mouth,
O someone should start laughing!
Someone should start wildly Laughing ‘Now!
Today’s Poem ~ An Infant in Your Arms
An Infant in Your Arms
Hafiz
The tide of my love
Has risen so high let me flood
over
You.
Close your eyes for a moment
And maybe all your
fears and fantasies
Will end.
If that happened
God would become an infant in your
Arms
And then you
Would have to nurse all
Creation!
I Have Learned So Much ~ Hafiz
I Have Learned So Much
Hafiz
I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me
Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.
Troubled ~ Hafiz
TROUBLED
Hafiz
Troubled?
Then stay with me, for I’m not.
Lonely?
A thousand naked amorous ones dwell in ancient caves
Beneath my eyelids.
Riches?
Here’s a pick,
My whole body is an emerald that begs,
“Take me.”
Write all that worries you on a piece of parchment;
Offer it to God.
Even from the distance of a millennium I can lean the flame in my heart
Into your life And turn
All that frightens you
Into holy
Incense
Ash.
