What will our children do in the morning? Will they wake with their hearts wanting to play, the way wings should? …. What will our children do in the morning if they do not see us fly. — Rumi.
Many of the readers of The Hubbell Pew remember a series we ran called “Letters to Tom.” Tom is a real person who used to live next door in DC, and has now returned to Portland, Oregon. Casey and Tom are still some of our closest friends and as we approach the 2000th Post at the Hubbell Pew, I thought it appropriate to write a letter to my Sufi friend, Tom.
Dear Tom:
Greetings dear friend. I ran across Rumi’s poem this morning and thought of Casey and you and the moment y’all introduced me to Rumi and so much more. I couldn’t help but think of all the times in human history when children didn’t wake up “wanting to play.” Instead their hope was to survive. What is it about human nature that wants to take out our anger on children, or even be willing participants in the murder or starvation of children? From the “massacre of the innocents, to the holocaust, to the recent gassing of children in Syria, and many times over, we have seen humankind take the hope and dreams of children away.
Maybe Rumi has it right when he suggests that the solution begins with us. It is in you, me, and all adults to show children “how to fly.” The hope for our children and grandchildren lies with our placing value on all life, not on the select. What a wonderful legacy we can leave our children and grandchildren if they are one day asked, “What will you do this morning?” and they answer, “I want to play, I want to fly.” And then when they are asked how did you learn to fly they answer, “My grandparents taught me to fly.”
Today is the perfect day to teach our children and ourselves to fly. Ever in his peace. Webb.
Editors Note: Followers of the Pew know one of my favorite scenes in the Bible is in the Garden of Eden where God calls out to Adam to join him for walk during “the evening breeze.” I hope you feel “The Hubbell Pew” offers a walk in the evening breeze. Sometime next week we will post the 2000th meditation at thehubbellpew.com. I hope a few of you will write in about your favorite meditation or series such as the “Letters To Tom” to commemorate this anniversary.
I also hope you will encourage your friends to sign up to receive “The Hubbell Pew” by clicking the “Subscribe” link or if the spirit moves you to contribute modestly to “The Hubbell Pew” to help defray the costs of our webmaster and other expenses. (There my webmaster is happy. She insists I remind people.) Thank you for following and taking a walk with me in the “evening breeze.”
Dear Webb,
I share your concern about the plight of children in today’s world. In trying to find a Rumi quote among our books, and inspired by your selection regarding flying, I came up with this one: “The moon at dawn stooped like a hawk and took me and flew across the sky. Traveling inside that light, so close, my body turned to spirit.”
I think for me in the context of helping our children, this poem suggests we be open to inspiration and more connected to spirituality. On the other hand, it feels like the journey many of us are on in this country at the moment is marked by limited ideas because of the win-lose dialogue that seems to dominate. The Sufi masters that I enjoy reading, including Rumi, Hafiz, Hazrat Inayat Khan, all point to Love and connection with God as central to fulfillment . Those two ideas seem to be in short supply in much of the world’s dialogue at the moment, but of great importance to the hopes and dreams of the world’s children.
A short poem from Hafiz inspires me:
Where is the door to God?
In the sound of a barking dog, in the ring of a hammer,
In a drop of rain, In the face of everyone I see.
Thank you for starting the conversation, dear friend.
Tom