We are entering the season of gift giving, and I’d like to offer this poem to all of you reading this newsletter, as a gift to welcome in the new year. It was written by Hafiz. Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love), calls Hafiz the fourteenth century Persian version of Walt Whitman, another love of mine! Here it is:
I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD TO SEE THIS
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands even at the height
of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized there is just one
flesh to wound and it is His-the Christ’s, our Beloved’s.
I have come into this world to see this: all creatures
holding hands as we pass through this miraculous
existence we share on the way to even a greater being
of soul,
a being of just ecstatic light, forever entwined and at
play with Him.
I have come into this world to hear this: every song
the earth has sung since it was conceived in the
Divine’s womb
and began spinning from His wish, every song by wing
and fin and hoof, every song by hill and tree and
woman and child;
every song of stream and rock, every song of tool and
lyre and flute, every song of gold and emerald and fire,
every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity
to know itself as God;
for all other knowledge will leave us again in want and
aching-only imbibing the glorious Sun will complete us.
I have come into this world to experience this: women
and men so true to love they would rather die before
speaking an unkind word,
women and men so true their lives are His covenant-
the promise of hope.
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands even at the height
of their arc of rage
because we have finally realized, we have finally realized,
there is just one flesh we can wound and it is our own.
This is a time of year that many look at making year end tax deductible donations. Here’s a great idea you may want to consider:By making a gift of $30 to www.worldvisiongifts.com, you can provide 5 fruit trees to children in an underserved part of the world. Oranges, mangoes, bananas, papayas, apples! Fruit provides kids with essential nutrients like Vitamin C and anti-oxidants. By giving a gift of fruit trees, you’ll feed children, provide income, and help yield seedlings so more families can grow their own fruit. For $60, you can provide 10 trees! And trees also help prevent soil erosion and clean the air!
