Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Brings Life to a Field

Brings Life to a Field

It is not possible to complete yourself
without sorrow. 

So endure sadness the best you can
when its season comes.

Meanwhile, unbeknowst to you
a sun takes birth in a sky 
you will one day know

and the tears that fall from your eyes
bring life to a field
you will someday walk in.  

            I found a lot of comfort in this poem when I initially read it a few months back. Reading it again, just now, I believe it is the type of poem that could be consoling on a daily basis. When I first read this poem, I thought the opening line was "It is not possible to complete your life without sorrow", but Hafiz really keeps the individual at the focal point, "it is not possible to complete yourself". This may be more profound, because in the best adventures of life, such as love, sorrow can be found. Of course no one wishes that it is found, but the possibility of losing someone exists in loving someone.
            C.S. Lewis addressed this in The Four Loves: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
         Despite this vulnerability, allowance for sorrow, it is a risk we all must take. Sorrow or not, who knows what simultaneously is being born beneath a radiant sky of our soul and growing in the nourishing fields of our heart?
         Although unrelated, I've always found "Colors of The Wind" to be a soul-nourishing song. Enjoy!

Colors of The Wind
Pocahontas (1995)

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