Sent: 25 April 2006 12:39
To: salman
Subject: RE:

I keep sensing that you've not been yourself the last few weeks.... I really hope you're able to work things out and life holds lots of happiness for you.



I hope you don't find this condescending, but this is a beautiful extract from Rumi which I love reading. It helps me because people always say that perseverance brings contentment, but persevering with life's ambitions without patience brings neither inner peace nor happiness. I know that you already know all this, and understand it all, but I find sometimes we all need to hear it again in order to bring continual conviction to our beliefs.

But the body's desires, in another way, are like
an unpredictable associate, whom you must be
patient with. And that companion is helpful,
because patience expands your capacity
to love and feel peace.
The patience of a rose close to a thorn
keeps it fragrant. It's patience that gives milk
to the male camel still nursing in its third year,
and patience is what the prophets show to us.

The beauty of careful sewing on a shirt
is the patience it contains.

Friendship and loyalty have patience
as the strength of their connection.

Feeling lonely and ignoble indicates
that you haven't been patient.

Be with those who mix with God
as honey blends with milk, and say,

"Anything that comes and goes,
rises and sets, is not
what I love." else you'll be like a caravan fire left
to flare itself out alone beside the road.