Letting go

Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins
That may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days like a broken man
Behind a farting camel.
-Hafiz

On being alive

We went to this really cool store on vacation. It is called Loose Lucy's. (which is a Grateful Dead song.......... Very cool store) They play Grateful dead videos all day long in there.
What a great place to work.
Hope you like the words below!!!
Love,
Michele



Stay close to any sounds That make you glad you are alive.

-Hafiz

LOVE

Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."

Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise

someone would call the cops.

Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye

that is always saying, with that sweet moon language,

what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

- Hafiz

---

Not Needing to Know

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!

~Hafiz~

I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy
Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

Surrender

Macy and Mira were outside messing around the other day...taking pictures of flowers and stuff. Macy took this picture then.
I was taking Mira to dance today and she was noticing the blooming trees and said "I wanted to get out there and get some pictures of the trees." Sometimes I need my kids to remind me about what is important in life!!!!
...kinda like the poem below.
Have a great day.
Namaste,
Michele

We have not come here to take prisoners,
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience
That stand outside of our house
And shout to our reason
“O please, O please,
Come out and play.”

For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom and
Light!
~ Hafiz
The Gift-Versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

on being free

Mira took this picture last weekend...Macy in her happiest state which is barefoot and outside. Do you like the poem below??? I do.

Namaste,

Michele

The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He
Knows.

While the sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners.

--Hafiz

Dance!!!!

Say,
"Love,
Give me back my wings.
Lift me,
Lift me nearer."

Say to the sun and moon,
Say to our dear Friend,

"I will take You up now, Beloved,
On that wonderful Dance You promised."

~ Hafiz ~

At this party

Mira took this picture above at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo last week when
we went for Boo at the Zoo. I hope you enjoy the poem below.
Have a great day!!
Namaste,
Michele



AT THIS PARTY
~ Hafiz (c. 1320-1389)

I don't want to be the only one here
Telling all the secrets--

Filling up all the bowls at this party,
Taking all the laughs.

I would like you
To start putting things on the table
That can also feed the soul
The way I do.

That way
We can invite

A hell of a lot more
Friends.

(from The Subject Tonight Is Love: Sixty Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz,
versions by Daniel Ladinsky, Pumpkin House Press, 3rd ed, 2000)

A Divine Invitation

I took this picture in Ohio City.
There is a park there with all this beautiful artwork on tiles by kids.
hope you like the poem below!!
Michele




A Divine Invitation

You have been invited to meet
The Friend

No one can resist a Divine Invitation.
That narrows down all our choices
To just two:

We can come to God
Dressed for Dancing,

Or

Be carried on a stretcher
To God's Ward.

-Hafiz, translation by Daniel Ladinsky

letting go

the poem below is the message that keeps showing up for me.....
letting go......no resistance........giving people the freedom to be stupid and
not having to change them. (for maybe I will find out later that I was the one being stupid.)
anyway...hope you enjoy the words below as much as I do!!!!!
love,
Michele



MANIC SCREAMING

We should make all spiritual talk
Simple today:

God is trying to sell you something,
But you don't want to buy.

That is what your suffering is:

Your fantastic haggling,
Your manic screaming over the price.

- Hafiz,
translated by Daniel Ladinsky,
*I Heard God Laughing*

on being peace

“For a day, for just one day,
Talk about that which disturbs no one.
And brings some peace into your Beautiful eyes.”
~ Hafiz

God Speaking

a view from our porch






Why Not Be Polite?


Everyone

Is God speaking.

Why not be polite and

Listen to

Him?



-Hafiz

Letting go

"Stop Being So Religious"

What
Do Sad people have in
Common?

It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past

And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.

What is the beginning of
Happiness?

It is to stop being
so religious
Like
That.

by Hafiz

If God invited you to a party

If God
Invited you to a party
And said,

'Everyone
In the ballroom tonight
Will be my special
Guest...'

How would you then treat them
When you
Arrived?

Indeed, indeed!

And I know
There is no one in this world

Who
Is not upon
His Jeweled Dance
Floor


-written by

Hafiz

Your light

"I wish I could show you when you are lonely
or in darkness the astonishing light of you own being."
-Hafiz

It felt love

Macy took this picture at Omega Institute.

Flowers are her favorite thing to photograph.

Love,

Michele

"It Felt Love"
How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too

Frightened
From The Gift: Poems by Hafiz

Love like that

Even 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, 1320-1389