Today I received a poem in my email inbox, a poem from Rumi. It reminded me of the connection between water and storytelling. Most of the stories I write for Blue Living Ideas are about innovations or news- the innovations tend to hope for some new behavior to take root, while the news tends to lament some new destruction. I invite you to take some time today to think about how water is part of your story in the present, how it is part of your daily life, and what it has to teach you through storytelling.
Here is Rumi’s poem, as powerful now as the day he wrote it.
Story Water
A story is like water
that you heat for your bath.
It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you.
Very few can sit down
in the middle of the fire itself
like a salamander or Abraham.
We need intermediaries.
A feeling of fullness comes,
but it usually takes some bread
to bring it.
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
the light that’s blazing
inside your presence.
Water, stories, the body ,
all the things we do, are mediums
to hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.
—
How is water part of your daily life and what story does it tell you today?
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