Sorrow to Joy

Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.

Rumi

OK, so I have been having a lot of ''sorrow'' lately too, however it has been a kind of ''sweet-sour''  type, and Rumi appears to have nailed it with his wise words yet again. Ah, to be a poet like him, peace Ronnie!

MIriam StJohn Love this. So amazing that you can so definitively qualify your "sorrow" as a "sweet-sour" gentle type. Maybe it does not quite reach the level of sorrow, hence your quotation marks. Could it be more melancholy?

 

Ron Alexander MIriam StJohn, actually, it was amazingly deep sorrow - felt like the "Grief of the World", however I think I am ready to take it on, and know "this too shall pass", and as Rumi says "it prepares me for joy", as the deeper I go in my meditations, the more bliss I feel - timeless Eternal Joy! Thanks for checking in though!

 

MIriam StJohn Okay. But I got a foreboding feeling when I read "however I think I am ready to take it on," and with that thought you might like to seek consultation on whether you should "take it on" or "take it in." The other day, I went "taking on" something too, thinking I was strong enough, and it wasn't nice. In prayer, the Holy Spirit said to me: "Why do you go down into those dark places?" The words "go down" really stuck with me. But I was be way off-base in your situation. If so, forgive me. :-)

 

Ron Alexander When you go on ten day silent meditation retreats, everything comes up- all the demons and I have been three times, and still meditate an hour or more

everyday. Buddha did teach that pain is inevitable, however suffering is optional. He taught us how to get out of suffering by facing it head - on and learning the truth of impermanence, and that compassion (starting with one's self and spreading out) leads to happiness! Jesus gave us the three love "commandments" to get out of suffering. "Love God with all your heart", "Love your neighbor as thyself" (starting with yourself), and the hardest probably "Love your enemy" (especially the one within, I say). Thanks for more thoughtful feedback MIriam StJohn!

MIriam StJohn Thank you, too! I see you know what you are doing, so I need not be concerned. :-)

Ron Alexander Ah, that is so affirmative MIriam StJohn! I do appreciate your sweet affirmation! It would have been better to leave "gentle" out in opening statement!

 

Ron Alexander MIriam StJohn- one big grief I am working on is Memorial Day - Brother Barry killed in VietNam flying medevac helicopter. I was in army at same time as a medic, and not there because he was- toxic grief and survivors guilt - still not completely over it. Also, I work with vets with PTSD, and you should hear some of their stories - really sad and worse than their physical injuries. Anyway, so more grief than usual and this too shall pass....Thank Goodness!