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Open The Love Window
There is some kiss we want
with our whole lives,
the touch of spirit on the body.
Seawater begs the pearl
to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling!
At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me.
Close the language — door and
open the love window.
The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.
~Rumi
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I have been emphasizing the soul’s need for vernacular life-its relationship to a local place and culture. It has a preference for details and particulars, intimacy and involvement, attachment and rootedness. Like an animal the soul feeds on whatever life grows in its immediate environment. To the soul the ordinary is sacred and the everyday is the primary source of religion. But there is another side to this issue. The soul also needs spirituality, and as Ficino advises, a particular kind of spirituality: one that is not at odds with the everyday and the lowly.
