Rabbi Ron Segal
As we prepare to mark the last Shabbat of 5785 as well as the final days of Elul, I find myself turning, as I do each year at this time, to familiar sources of inspiration to aid my spiritual and emotional preparation to enter the New Year. I especially appreciate the ways in which evocative poetry – works such as Rumi’s “The Guest House” – can touch the soul and foster a greater sense of openheartedness. Whatever your sources of inspiration are, may they help to emotionally ground and spiritually enlarge us as we enter this New Year.
The Guest House
by Jalaluddin Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
