The Is

Thinking about Rumi:  “Drink all your passion and be a disgrace.”  Difficult – it  sounds like letting go to the point of irresponsibility.  I can’t believe that.  But – thinking about passion:  Rumi’s passion for Shams, for God.  Passionate exuberance.  My passions for creating, making, gardening – and into my mind came, exuberantly, “Be! Be! Be! Be!”  I discounted it – it sounds so passive.  But again, I heard it, “Be! Be! Be! Be!”  like the voice of an excited, happy, demanding child.  I thought, is creating (my passion) Being (which seems passive)?  Perhaps Being, ardent, exuberant Being, is the foundation of creating.  The name of God is, “I AM.”  Is.  Being.

From the Is comes everything – ourselves, stars, galaxies, neutrons, life.  That is creative in exemplariness.  If I “Be!” with exuberance, what might I accomplish creatively.  Then there is no need to worry about irresponsibility.  I will not suddenly forget my children in a creative fit.  My children are a part of my being, part of what I create, part of what I have created.  I am exuberant with them, about them, because of them.

So where is the disgrace?  Is it the disgrace not of bad behavior, but of unconventional personalness?  Being, I am wholly myself – not a follower of advertising, not a flawed attempt at conformity.  I sing with my less than perfect voice, my house is a mess, my nails are bitten.  I have hairs growing on my chin.  Following my Being, I am opened up to social embarrassment.  I am sure Rumi saw that as positive, an aid to stripping away worldliness and finding what truly matters.