alchemy

Learn the alchemy true human beings know.

The moment you accept what troubles

you've been given, the door will open.

 

Welcome difficulty, as a familiar comrade.

Joke with torment brought by the Friend.

 

Sorrows are the rags of old clothes

and jackets that serve to cover,

and then are taken off.

 

That undressing,

and the naked body underneath,

is the sweetness that comes after grief.

----Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks

Done