Updated: Aug 24, 2021
Run from what's comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Ruin your reputation. Be notorious. - Rumi This has always been one of my favorite Rumi sayings, though I didn’t always understand it. I used to think it meant “It's cool to be reckless", or "Don’t be afraid to do things that will ruin your reputation." That might account for some of the, um, poor judgement calls I’ve made. Misinterpreting Persian poets from the middle ages can get you in some trouble. Funny how a poem looks different the longer you stare at it. It's more like a sunset than a word-set. With each passing moment light drifts through the sky like a dirty dancing rainbow spinning around the ballroom so sexy & alive until
in one glorious super-nova of brilliance Green flash! the light goes out. I was a young man once. Today I understand this teaching to be a call to allow myself to be stretched by life, and not give in to the seductive cooing of old patterns that feel like a warm comforter. "Run from what's comfortable" is the call to challenge ourselves, to be open to new ways of being, thinking, reacting, relating, and loving; "Forget safety" is a call to disregard the preoccupation with what others think of us. It's a wake up call to go into the world with an open heart, transparent, vulnerable and willing to drop the need to defend ourselves all the time; "Live where you fear to live” invites us to risk to expressing our own dreams and inspirations. It challenges us to practice vulnerability because vulnerability is THE prerequisite for intimacy; "Ruin your reputation” challenges us to dare to be authentic without concern for the approval or opinion of others. It exhorts us to be governed by our own authentic truths as the guiding principle in our lives;
"Be notorious" is the sounding call to become FREE, for each of us to own our unique voice in the world, and to live life as a unique expression of who we are;
To be a Dragon, not a simple sheep. It's not “safe”. It's a volcano bubbling with Glorious Life. Rumi suggests we dive in and allow ourselves to become engulfed.
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