Ramadan Ends & Love Continues

Story Water (Rumi)

A story is like water
that you heat for your bath.It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it clean you!
Very few can sit down
in the middle of the fire itself
like a salamander or Abraham.
We need intermediaries.
A feeling of fullness comes,
but usually it takes some bread
to bring it.
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.
The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
the light that’s blazing
inside your presence.
Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.

Eid Mubarak to you all!!

Please accept my thanks for your eyes and your hearts through this blog during this last month. Ramadan went out with the arrival of sunset (for some folks that was tonight, for others it will be tomorrow or Monday). Its final gift is this night, one of the most blessed on the entire year. In it we are encouraged to ask for our heart’s deepest longings for ourselves, for those we love, for humanity. Dear readers, you are in my prayers this night.

I looked over the intention I set at the beginning of the month. Mainly I wanted to “do everything for love,” and to “live in the real state of my soul.” I’m not sure how I’ve stacked up at the end of it but I realize that these are not intentions only for this month. They are intentions for my life. This is always the challenge of Ramadan: how to remember what you’ve reawakened to everyday beyond the month.

I especially want to thank Wazina, my friend and comadre. Waz, you are a lover. I wish for you peace of heart and spirit, unmitigated joy, unmitigated love with your family and all who are connected with you through bonds of love and blood, past, present and yet to come. I admire you more than you know. I especially admire your courage and generosity. I am grateful that Allah has brought us together, has bound us in our earthly story. I want you know that phone time or not, in-person or not, I got you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I also want to thank everyone who supports us, our partners and friends, our communities. May Allah increase us in nearness to one another.

Thank Allah, thank Allah, thank Allah! May we abide in wonder! May we abide in divine remembrance! May we drink from the endlessly flowing cup of Love! May we live for Love! May we die before we die for Love! May we become transparent treasure chests and honor the treasure in one another! Ya Hayy, Ya Hayy, Ya Hayy!

Salaam.

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Eid Mubarak Y’all!