“Whatever purifies you, is the correct road, I will try not to define it.” – Rumi
Ah, Rumi, you touch my heart. I only recently heard of Rumi in the past couple of years, when I found a quote that suited me and my love of hoop dance so well that I put it on my business cards: “We came spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars . . . The stars form a circle, and in the center we dance.”
Where had I been? How had I missed Rumi? Was Rumi a man or a woman? A woman was my guess. I don’t think I’m all that well read, honestly, but I should’ve at least heard of her/him, right? I bought “The Essential Rumi,” a thick book full of Rumi’s poems on topics of human emotions, of life, death, love, of the Divine, and I pick it up and read it now and then.
And it turns out that Rumi, a 13th-century Persian mystic, was actually a man (I was wrong).
Still, I hadn’t discovered the quote that started this column until the other night when I was on Facebook. Ah, Facebook, I’ve learned so much from your site and your faithful users! Sometimes people put their favorite quotes in their profile, and I love to read those. This one popped out at me from someone’s page, and it’s so appropriate. One of my friends recently mentioned that the older she gets, the less she cares about what other people think. Right on, sister! That’s what this quote so perfectly embodies to me.
Whatever speaks to my soul, whatever road purifies me, that is where I want to go. Doesn’t matter what other people may think, they should not and will not be the ones defining my path. And conversely, neither should I be the one defining the paths of others. To me, it’s also a lesson in letting go of judgment and, in the process, being free.