Should I fear?

Poem On Reincarnation

Written by Jalai Al-Din

I died from the mineral and became a plant;

I died from the plant, and reappeared in an animal;

I died from the animal and became a man;

Wherefore then should I fear?

When did I grow less by dying?

Next time I shall die from the man,

That I may grow the wings of angels.

From the angel, too, must I seek advance;

All things shall perish save His face

Once more shall I wing my way above the angels;

I shall become that which entereth not the imaginations.

Then let me become naught, naught, for the harp string crieth unto me,

Verily unto Him do we return...

A Poem

Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver

I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

Rumi poem

Rumi is a 13th century Persian Sufi mystic, born in Balkh, in what is now Afghanistan. The general theme of his thoughts, like that of the other mystic and Sufi poets of the Persian literature, is essentially about the concept of Tawheed (unity) and union with his beloved (the primal root) from which/whom he has been cut and fallen aloof, and his longing and desire for reunity. - Text from Wikipedia

The following poem is one of my favorites:

Since You Are I, You Who Are Myself

Once a man came and knocked at the door of his friend.
“Who are you?” asked his friend. “It is I,” he replied.
The friend said, “Go away! This isn’t the time to enter!
There’s no place at a table like mine for the one
Who’s not been cooked in the fire of true gnosis?
Apart from the fire of absence and separation
What’ll cook the raw or free the uncooked from fraud?
The poor man went away and for a whole year of travel and absence
He was burnt utterly by the flames of separation.
His heart burned until it was consumed; he came again
To the door of his friend and knocked at the door
With a hundred signs of the utmost fear and reverence,
Terrified a wrong word should escape his lips.
From within, his friend called out, “Who’s at the door?”
He replied, “It is you who are at the door, O charmer of hearts!”
“Since you are I,” the friend said, “O you who are myself,
Enter; there’s no place in my house for two I’s.
~ RUMI

The Hummingbirds

Since April of this year, I've enjoyed the company of some tiny friends in my garden, the little hummingbirds. So cheerfully chatting, flitting about from flower to flower and stopping for a drink of sugar water from my feeders, they've added such life to my backyard.

It's autumn now. For the last two days, I've not seen them. One by one, the tiny creatures quietly left on their long journeys south for the winter. How did I not know they were preparing to leave? Did they try to tell me good-bye and I missed it? The feeders are hanging in still silence and only my past visions of the little creatures remain.

Goodbye my little friends. I pray for you a safe journey...............'til we meet again.

Winged Jewel
With wings spun of silver and hearts of gold,These tiny creatures our hearts behold.With angelic features and colors so bright,Make even the heaviest heart seem light.The magical way they flit through the sky,They appear, then vanish in the blink of an eye.They're sending a message for us to retrieve,Anything's possible for those who believe!

Written by: Christopher Griffiths

Q & A about migration of hummingbirds:



Ruby-throats winter in Central America from Mexico to Panama. At the northern extreme, a few rufous hummers winter in southern and coastal California and along the Gulf coast from southeastern Texas to Florida. Most winter in Mexico.



Q. Do hummingbirds migrate by day or night?


By day, except in one situation: when ruby-throated hummingbirds light out over the Gulf of Mexico, they are over water when night falls and must keep on going until the reach the other side.



Q. When do hummers leave their wintering grounds?

They time their return to the breeding grounds according to location. Birds that live in the southern part of the US begin their return migration as early as February. Birds that live further north in the East, or in the inland mountains in the West, time their return to coincide with the flowering of their food plants or sapsucker migration.

-----diane