TENDING TWO SHOPS

Don't run around this world
looking for a hole to hide in.

Thee are wild beasts in every cave!
If you live with mice,
the cat claws will find you.

The only real rest comes
when you're alone with God.

Live in the nowhere that you came from,
even though you have an address here.

That's why you see things in two ways.
Sometimes you look at a person
and see a cynical snake.

Someone else sees a joyful lover,
and you're both right!

Every one is half and half,
like the black and white ox.

Joseph looked ugly to his brothers,
and most handsome to his father.

You have eyes that see from that nowhere,
and eyes that judge distances,
how high and how low.

You own two shops,
and you run back and forth.

Try to close the one that's a fearful trap,
getting always smaller. Checkmate,
this way. Checkmate that.

Keep open the shop
where you're not selling fish-books anymore.
You are the free-swimming fish.


Think that you're gliding out from the face of a cliff
like an eagle. Think you're walking
like a tiger walks by himself i n the forest.
You're the most handsome when you're after food.

Spend less time with the nightingales and peacocks.
One is just a voice, the other just a color.

RUmi~The Essential Rumi
74-75