![\"2003](\"https://marylangworthy.sharethepractice.org/files/2011/08/Dont-Go-Back-To-Sleep.png\")
Our son Jack started reading Rumi’s poetry in high school, so\u00a0Tim and I placed this “ad” in his graduation yearbook back in 2003.\u00a0That’s\u00a0Jack\u00a0sitting on a blanket holding an orange and looking, I think, very Churchillian.\u00a0 (He was probably 6 months old and the flower hedge was in fact\u00a0about 8″ high.)\u00a0 Clearly a deep\u00a0thinker, he was either contemplating Rumi-esque ideas or wondering how to fit the orange in his mouth.
In 2007, Rumi was named the most popular poet in America.\u00a0 He was born in 1207 in Afghanistan and in the intervening 800 years was consistently among the best loved Persian poets.\u00a0 More recent translations into English that captured the essence of his poetry, where literal translations had failed, brought his popularity stateside.
\nI love the beginning of this poem:
\nThe breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you;
\nDon’t go back to sleep.
Perhaps it’s the shape and texture, color, taste and smell of an orange that the breeze shares with the wakeful child.\u00a0 Or perhaps it’s the the essence of the orange: its gift-ness — all that goodness (still to be discovered!) plucked for him from the backyard’s dwarf orange tree.
\nI’ve found that dawn after dawn that breeze gently blows gifts of comfort, strength, peace and joy for each of us to grasp as tangibly as that orange.\u00a0 And to share with one another as easily as we do an orange, when — awake —\u00a0we realize that there’s more comfort, strength, peace and joy on each dawn’s breeze.\u00a0 It’s the nature of the the day.*\u00a0\u00a0And the nature of the child — dawn after dawn.
\n*”Day.\u00a0 The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love… The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded.\u00a0 This unfolding is God’s day, and “there shall be no night there.”\u00a0 Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 584.
\nHurricane Irene was making its way up the East Coast as I wrote this blog about dawn’s breezes.\u00a0 The prophet Elijah saw that the Lord, God, divine Love and Life, is not in the wind that wailed into the mountain and broke the rock in pieces.\u00a0 God, Spirit, Soul, was in the quiet calm that was there all along and that Elijah could hear after the raging.\u00a0 I loved the insights along these lines in a religious article in The Christian Science Monitor back in 2008, after Hurricane Gustav roared through.\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s the link:
\nhttp://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Articles-on-Christian-Science/2008/0902/p19s01-hfcs.html
\nIn “Victory,” poet Rosemary Cobham writes about blackbirds singing even on the battlefield.\u00a0“They wait not on the dawn, They sing it on.”\u00a0 Rumi’s “The Breeze at Dawn” may well have been sung and not simply recited. Music and dance played an important part in his Muslim ministry.\u00a0 I think even in the darkest of circumstances, there’s a song of victory on that breeze at dawn.\u00a0 Let’s not go back to sleep. Let’s sing it on.
\n\nNot only in the peaceful countryside
\nDo blackbirds sing.
\nIn city’s trafficking
\nYou’ll hear them
\nThrough the traffic’s din.
\nThey will, I’m told,
\nSing even on a battlefield.
Brave and grateful hearts
\nMake no conditions.
\nYou will hear their song
\nPealing spontaneously long
\nBefore healing is apparent.
\nTheir joy inherent,
\nThey wait not on the dawn,
\nThey sing it on.
This they know
\nGod made man perfect, and maintains him so.
\nAnd so they sing.
\nTo songs of gratitude illusions yield;
\nGone is the battlefield.
(1971 Christian Science Sentinel, vol. 73, p. 456)
\n\n", "content_text": "Our son Jack started reading Rumi’s poetry in high school, so\u00a0Tim and I placed this “ad” in his graduation yearbook back in 2003.\u00a0That’s\u00a0Jack\u00a0sitting on a blanket holding an orange and looking, I think, very Churchillian.\u00a0 (He was probably 6 months old and the flower hedge was in fact\u00a0about 8″ high.)\u00a0 Clearly a deep\u00a0thinker, he was either contemplating Rumi-esque ideas or wondering how to fit the orange in his mouth.\nIn 2007, Rumi was named the most popular poet in America.\u00a0 He was born in 1207 in Afghanistan and in the intervening 800 years was consistently among the best loved Persian poets.\u00a0 More recent translations into English that captured the essence of his poetry, where literal translations had failed, brought his popularity stateside.\nI love the beginning of this poem:\nThe breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you;\nDon’t go back to sleep.\nPerhaps it’s the shape and texture, color, taste and smell of an orange that the breeze shares with the wakeful child.\u00a0 Or perhaps it’s the the essence of the orange: its gift-ness — all that goodness (still to be discovered!) plucked for him from the backyard’s dwarf orange tree.\nI’ve found that dawn after dawn that breeze gently blows gifts of comfort, strength, peace and joy for each of us to grasp as tangibly as that orange.\u00a0 And to share with one another as easily as we do an orange, when — awake —\u00a0we realize that there’s more comfort, strength, peace and joy on each dawn’s breeze.\u00a0 It’s the nature of the the day.*\u00a0\u00a0And the nature of the child — dawn after dawn.\n*”Day.\u00a0 The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love… The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded.\u00a0 This unfolding is God’s day, and “there shall be no night there.”\u00a0 Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 584.\nHurricane Irene was making its way up the East Coast as I wrote this blog about dawn’s breezes.\u00a0 The prophet Elijah saw that the Lord, God, divine Love and Life, is not in the wind that wailed into the mountain and broke the rock in pieces.\u00a0 God, Spirit, Soul, was in the quiet calm that was there all along and that Elijah could hear after the raging.\u00a0 I loved the insights along these lines in a religious article in The Christian Science Monitor back in 2008, after Hurricane Gustav roared through.\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s the link:\nhttp://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Articles-on-Christian-Science/2008/0902/p19s01-hfcs.html\nIn “Victory,” poet Rosemary Cobham writes about blackbirds singing even on the battlefield.\u00a0“They wait not on the dawn, They sing it on.”\u00a0 Rumi’s “The Breeze at Dawn” may well have been sung and not simply recited. Music and dance played an important part in his Muslim ministry.\u00a0 I think even in the darkest of circumstances, there’s a song of victory on that breeze at dawn.\u00a0 Let’s not go back to sleep. Let’s sing it on.\n\nVictory\nNot only in the peaceful countryside\nDo blackbirds sing.\nIn city’s trafficking\nYou’ll hear them\nThrough the traffic’s din.\nThey will, I’m told,\nSing even on a battlefield.\nBrave and grateful hearts\nMake no conditions.\nYou will hear their song\nPealing spontaneously long\nBefore healing is apparent.\nTheir joy inherent,\nThey wait not on the dawn,\nThey sing it on.\nThis they know\nGod made man perfect, and maintains him so.\nAnd so they sing.\nTo songs of gratitude illusions yield;\nGone is the battlefield.\n(1971 Christian Science Sentinel, vol. 73, p. 456)\n ", "date_published": "2011-08-28T00:16:50-05:00", "date_modified": "2011-09-11T08:50:57-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "marylangworthy", "url": "https://marylangworthy.sharethepractice.org/author/marylangworthy/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6c746a967e47ff7c0406a88f1d847d4e3a3da968e3c1ce6f317682d24de97294?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "marylangworthy", "url": "https://marylangworthy.sharethepractice.org/author/marylangworthy/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6c746a967e47ff7c0406a88f1d847d4e3a3da968e3c1ce6f317682d24de97294?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "tags": [ "News" ] }, { "id": "https://marylangworthy.sharethepractice.org/?p=13", "url": "https://marylangworthy.sharethepractice.org/2011/08/25/gratitudes-lens/", "title": "Gratitude\u2019s Lens", "content_html": "
Long days and short nights have become the norm recently.\u00a0 I think of Buckminster Fuller (discoverer/inventer of the geodesic dome) and Martha Stewart at such times.\u00a0 I read that they attributed their great productivity to sleeping no more than 4 hours a night.
\nI attribute my stamina to gratitude. Sunday morning, 4 hours before I needed to leave for the airport, I put my head on my pillow and thought how grateful I was for large and small gifts of grace from our dear Father-Mother, God.
\nI’ve kept up my gratitude through some choppy waters.\u00a0 Lost my drivers license and credit card somewhere at Logan Airport.\u00a0 Prayed and retraced steps, called the cab company, emptied my purse for the umpteenth time.\u00a0 I was praying and affirming the presence and onliness of good. But I will admit to some humiliating tears at the TSA desk as I explained my predicament — no picture i.d.\u00a0 Then this unexpected grace:\u00a0 to a man and woman, the\u00a0 guards were only comforting and quietly reassuring.
\nI must not fit their profile. Which got me thinking about identity.\u00a0 Mine couldn’t be taken from me.\u00a0 Nor could man’s inherent innocence be taken from him.\u00a0 More on that perhaps in another blog.
\nI loved discovering\u00a0 in “The Lens of Gratitude” by L. Ivimy Gwalter: “The presence of gratitude in our hearts is the reflection of Love.\u00a0 . . it dispels fear; it dissipates discouragement. . . Gratitude is as natural and unlabored as the fragrance of the flower.”
\nAnd speaking of unlabored, I loved this translation of the 23rd Psalm in Japanese Bible that Marjorie Dagnall shared with us in her talk on Tuesday morning (I thought of you, dear Chrstian Science nurses!):
\nThe Lord is my Pace-setter, I shall not rush;
\nHe makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals,
\nHe provides me with images of stillness, which restore my serenity,
\nHe leads me in the ways of efficiency through calmness of mind,
\nAnd His guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day,
\nI will not fret, for His presence is here,
\nHis timelessness, His all-importance, will keep me in balance,
\nHe prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity,
\nBy anointing my mind with His oils of tranquility.
My cup of joyous energy overflows,
\nSurely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours,
\nFor I shall walk in the pace of my Lord and dwell in His house for ever.
\n
With love and joy, M
\n", "content_text": "Long days and short nights have become the norm recently.\u00a0 I think of Buckminster Fuller (discoverer/inventer of the geodesic dome) and Martha Stewart at such times.\u00a0 I read that they attributed their great productivity to sleeping no more than 4 hours a night.\nI attribute my stamina to gratitude. Sunday morning, 4 hours before I needed to leave for the airport, I put my head on my pillow and thought how grateful I was for large and small gifts of grace from our dear Father-Mother, God.\n\nFor dear Tim who’s letting me go to Boston for 5 weeks to attend a Christian Science Nursing Arts course at the Chestnut Hill Benevolent Association;\nfor the folks at the CHBA who are allowing me to join the class;\nfor Peace Haven’s Christian Science nurses who day in and day out tenderly care for the individual needs of our patients with inspiration, camaraderie and joy;\nfor Toni and Barry who will fill in for me while I’m away with wisdom and wit;\nfor Suzan and the board for supporting Peace Haven’s training partnership with Nursing Arts;\nfor Jack in Tanzania who couldn’t make his dad or me happier;\nfor\u00a0 my soft pillow;\nfor my alarm app on my phone . . .\n\nI’ve kept up my gratitude through some choppy waters.\u00a0 Lost my drivers license and credit card somewhere at Logan Airport.\u00a0 Prayed and retraced steps, called the cab company, emptied my purse for the umpteenth time.\u00a0 I was praying and affirming the presence and onliness of good. But I will admit to some humiliating tears at the TSA desk as I explained my predicament — no picture i.d.\u00a0 Then this unexpected grace:\u00a0 to a man and woman, the\u00a0 guards were only comforting and quietly reassuring.\nI must not fit their profile. Which got me thinking about identity.\u00a0 Mine couldn’t be taken from me.\u00a0 Nor could man’s inherent innocence be taken from him.\u00a0 More on that perhaps in another blog.\nI loved discovering\u00a0 in “The Lens of Gratitude” by L. Ivimy Gwalter: “The presence of gratitude in our hearts is the reflection of Love.\u00a0 . . it dispels fear; it dissipates discouragement. . . Gratitude is as natural and unlabored as the fragrance of the flower.”\nAnd speaking of unlabored, I loved this translation of the 23rd Psalm in Japanese Bible that Marjorie Dagnall shared with us in her talk on Tuesday morning (I thought of you, dear Chrstian Science nurses!):\nThe Lord is my Pace-setter, I shall not rush;\nHe makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals,\nHe provides me with images of stillness, which restore my serenity,\nHe leads me in the ways of efficiency through calmness of mind,\nAnd His guidance is peace.\nEven though I have a great many things to accomplish each day,\nI will not fret, for His presence is here,\nHis timelessness, His all-importance, will keep me in balance,\nHe prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity,\nBy anointing my mind with His oils of tranquility.\nMy cup of joyous energy overflows,\nSurely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours,\nFor I shall walk in the pace of my Lord and dwell in His house for ever.\n \nWith love and joy, M", "date_published": "2011-08-25T03:49:02-05:00", "date_modified": "2011-08-28T09:59:48-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "marylangworthy", "url": "https://marylangworthy.sharethepractice.org/author/marylangworthy/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6c746a967e47ff7c0406a88f1d847d4e3a3da968e3c1ce6f317682d24de97294?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "marylangworthy", "url": "https://marylangworthy.sharethepractice.org/author/marylangworthy/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6c746a967e47ff7c0406a88f1d847d4e3a3da968e3c1ce6f317682d24de97294?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "tags": [ "News" ] } ] }