It seems hard to imagine, given how we raise our young with such protection from any displeasure, that we would find it to be a necessary part of living a full life to be broken by something. Yet it is true. Whatever we design or is designed for us requires that we decide if it is ours to keep or to discard after we run into it in our lives. Sometimes WE are the discarded. Broken things everywhere. So many decisions to be made. It can be very complex and cluttered with shards of experience that require a great deal of time, focus (and, sometimes, medication) to understand.
Our ship that Hafiz seems to refer to here would be the life we embark upon in this body, in this time. He's asking us what we are up to and stating what he accepted as his choice. He needed to surrender and enroll in learning more about life and love...before he reached his destination because...Your body's port is the graveyard. It is all about the journey, empowering ourselves as we empower others, and the choices we make.
Thank you for listening.
https://pixabay.com/music/world-sufi-dance-109190/
Music: Here is David Byrne singing Broken Things from one of my favorite albums of his "Look Into The Eyeball". I've listened to it a lot over the last decade. He's an amazingly prolific artist whose work appeals to many different kinds of people with very diverse interests. I can't recall where I read it but it made me laugh when he said something like, "It is rumored that I will collaborate with any artist for a Snicker's bar" or something like that and I thought, "Yes. That is how living in the flow could be. To do things because we feel like it first. The rest should just be what it needs to be." His life's work is a gift to us all.
Sculpture by Paige Bradley
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz (including an addendum regarding the authenticity of these poems) can be found here.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.