Rumi: Wise Words of a 13th Century Poet

Let’s get a little bit personal on the blog today.

Like most people, I’ve had my share of ups and downs. I’ve made hard choices and dealt with the fallout, whether positive or negative. I’ve searched for where I belong in the world, moving cross-country 5 times since I’ve been old enough to do so. As strange as it seems, there is one thing that often helps me through the hard times: words. Whether it’s advice from someone close, song lyrics, bible verses, or quotes, words become a type of mantra, something to either cling to with hope or to validate feelings.

One poet who always seems to manifest for me in times of need is Rumi. It’s odd to me that someone who lived over 800 years ago could say things so full of truth that they are still relevant today. And yet it really isn’t that strange after all. As people, we struggle with the same feelings and emotions today as people did centuries ago; only the circumstances have changed.

Today, I’d like to share some of my favorite quotes that have helped get me through the hard times in hopes that, maybe, they will reach someone else who needs to hear them, too.

Eight years ago, I divorced. It was something that I never thought would happen to me, but I found myself needing to decide where to draw the line between doing all I could to save my marriage and maintaining my own self-respect. I spent hours thinking, walking, journaling, and talking until I made a decision I could live with, but it could not stop a broken heart. I was devastated to lose my best friend and partner of 11 years, to lose the other side of the family I was very close to, to lose our new home, to lose the future children we’d just started trying for and the life that we’d laid out before us. In my darkest days of mourning when I felt broken, that was when the words first came to me:

(Continued…)