ThirstyFish

Someone thought that this photograph was staged. It was not.

Just as a rose is a rose together with its thorns, the human being is only complete through trials and tribulations. Life expresses its beauty only when one recognizes this. But was Rumi right when he said: "A Rose's Rarest Essence Lives in the Thorn". Is the rarest essence of beauty, of life, in the thorn?

• This being human is a guest house
• Every morning a new arrival.
• A joy, a depression, a meanness,
• some momentary awareness comes
• as an unexpected visitor.
• Welcome and entertain them all!
•  
• Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
• who violently sweep your house
• empty of its furniture,
• still treat each guest honorably.
•  
• He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
• The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
• meet them at the door laughing,
• and invite them in.
•  
• Be grateful for whoever comes,
• because each has been sent
• as a guide from beyond.
• -- 13th Century mystic poet Rumi; Excerpt from Essential Rumi

Song of the Day: What About Me - Moving Pictures (1982)