Gamble everything for love, if you’re a true human being.
If not, leave this gathering.
Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty. You set out to find God,
but then you keep stopping for long periods at mean-spirited roadhouses.
Rumi, Translation, Barks
These words began to echo in my being this morning, just as the bell sounded ending my morning meditation. Gamble everything for love. It’s easy enough to hear these words in a sentimental way — to gamble everything for my love — for the pleasant feelings of love that I might experience. But that’s not what Rumi is saying — at least that not what I hear Rumi saying today. It’s more like gamble everything for the One — the One that holds all. And let that One inform everything.
Of course, if we are going to take this invitation seriously, there has to be an opening, an awareness to how this One, this love, this basic goodness that is in all wants to manifest. There has to be a moment of silence, stillness, and solitude — conditions that are largely missing in many of our lives.
But perhaps we can clear some space — for a moment, a few moments, even longer. And sense our way into this goodness, this aliveness, this presence of the One who does allow us to reach into majesty.
We may not know what will come forth, but we can make an effort to honor the goodness at the root of being and strive to honor it today.
Comments