Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd …
Rumi
A bus passed by one day and on its side, an ad showed a man sitting on the floor, laughing and playing with a couple of young kids. The text read, “Take time to be a dad today.” Good reminder.
That would be enough for one day, but every day all of us take time to be so many things. I take time to be:
A wanderer, a wonderer, a naturalist, a caregiver, a chronicler, a sous chef, a housekeeper, an observer, a reconciler, a reader, a conscientious objector, an environmentalist, a go-fer, a decider, a dish-washer, an editor, a facilitator, a sympathizer, an appreciator, a mentor, a seed-sower, a teacher, a questioner, a counselor, a consumer, a planner, a greeter, a navigator, a chauffeur, a winner, a loser, a meditator, a community organizer, a partner, a friend.
Not all these things every day, but every day so many things. We are all this and more.
But Rumi got me thinking further afield, so I took up his torch:
Today … Be a chalice, Be a star’s far-reaching light, Be the turning page — or a turning leaf in its first (and last) descent, Be the first and last step of a journey.
*Be a path through the tangled wood — or a long-distance run, Be the rain against the window at midnight, Be the morning chill, Be the gathering light in the eastern sky, Be an open door — or a secret passageway.
*Be the unruffled water, Be the sand that welcomes a wave, Be the wave that soothes the sand — or the shells left in its wake, Be the music of water flowing over stones in a riverbed.
*Be the friendly hum of conversation in the dining hall — or a familiar voice in a strange setting, Be a sun-warmed seat, or the sleeve that catches a sneeze, Be a candle flickering, or the curling smoke of the snuffed flame, Be the breeze that ruffles, Be the thrown stone that ripples.
*Be the mortar that braces bricks — or the gravel in hardened cement, Be the spice in a stew, or the carrot in a cake.
*Be the worn key that turns an ancient lock, Be the beam that supports the roof, Be the pine straw that cushions the ground, Be the sap that scents the air, the baking bread, the coffee grounds, the sizzling bacon, the cinnamon, that give the nose a whiff of heaven, Be the aged wine flowing at last from the bottle neck and interacting for the first time with air.
*Be the evening light torching tree tops — or the vast silence of the setting sun, or a swallow gliding through the afterglow, Be the incense swirling through shafts of sunlight from a church window, Be the first wildflower in spring — or shade on a summer afternoon, Be the mown grass, or a seed in tilled earth, Be the last ember aglow in a fireplace — or the lighted path cast by a full moon rising over the lake, Be the first footprint in undisturbed snow.
*Be the lips that meet, the locked eyes of lovers, Be that beloved song on the radio during a long drive, Be the memories the song provokes, Be the torn paper beside an unwrapped present, Be the stick that stirs — or the leaven in the loaf.
*Be the butterfly just beyond reach,
*Be the reach that exceeds grasp,
*Be the wine-dark sea,
*Be the night-sea journey.
*Be the old moon in the new moon’s arms.
That’s a lot for one day, of course, or one lifetime for that matter. But I believe we are capable of being all this — and more.
Take time today to be more than you thought you were.