I have never felt alone though I have often been lonely. This loneliness is true especially since I retired and left behind my friends and coworkers who accompanied me throughout my life. Prior to that I had my family who then grew and went out on their own. I was not inclined towards marriage or partnering, so I've had periods all along in my life where I made my way in an independent and solitary manner. I think now that it is these periods of isolation in my life that has allowed me to notice how I'm guided.
Having a life full of people can have the effect of everything becoming externalized and tangible. One would think, if one lived most of their lives with plenty of company, that the alternative to that would be a kind of void. Well, there is a dearth of cuddles, noise and ruckus but I have found it to allow a kind of clarity and sensitivity towards the more subtle aspects of living that can be engulfed by a life designed more to engage in an invasion than one that flows inward in retreat. Ideally we cultivate both and find our authentic way from there.
For most people, guidance generally shows up as coincidences and an occasional near miss or a shocking dream when one is not tapped into a relationship with the parts of themselves that travel sans chassis. It is a much smoother exchange when cultivated, so I've come to appreciate. As Hafiz makes mention in this poem, a person cannot hear anything that they are not ready, willing, and able to hear. Guidance does not present gently to a deaf or disinclined ear. I must, however, like Hafiz, whisper into the void even if it is just for my own amusement.
Thank you for listening.
There are some, like this woman who is known as Peace Pilgrim, who have experienced a spiritual awakening as a young adult and dedicated themselves to cultivating it. She walked her talk since 1953, over 25,000 miles across the United States - on a genuine pilgrimage on foot with nothing but her faith in humanity and peace; no food, no money, no expectations beyond her discipline in understanding that whatever befell her required her presence. She believed in what is good in people - she vibrationally pulled it out of others to connect with them and this practice supported her for twenty eight years as she shared her understanding and lifestyle of peace in community talks and in the encounters that walking thousands of miles provided. While this is clearly not everyone's path or style, if anyone would ever want to know everything they would need to personally live totally in peace in their own way in this wild world, they need only listen to this interview. It is all there. The entire spectrum of consciousness step by step. Few will listen, I know, but in the name of all that is truly important in this world, radiating, walking, living, and educating about peace will prevail as it is what is required of us all. We have forgotten...Peace Pilgrim has not.
Music: I have a strong sense of guidance in my life and I'm quite thankful for it though I still need to ask and frame the question intelligently to receive an answer. Years ago I was filing away songs while I wrote my book, not really understanding why. I'm finding myself using these songs now. Here is one that the media jockeys rode so hard and so often when it was popular, that people prayed that the road that they must travel in the song would drop off over a cliff never to be heard of again. It is still a good song to my ear. Perhaps better for the hiatus. It has aged well for me, anyway. I'm enjoying hearing it again. Hope you do, too. Kyrie Eleison means Lord, have mercy. Some prayers go down easier in Latin as they don't carry the baggage the same saying in English does. It is still an ask. It is still a prayer.
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz can be found here.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.