Jar Full of Delight

"Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.


Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.


Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,


the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about "what's needed."


Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it's been untied, and is just ambling about."

Rumi 'The Many Wines'

Bestie.

I woke up this morning really missing my best friend. Can't wait til the Twilight premiere so I can fly out to the northwest and see her. Jules: I love you ❤

I love my friends neither with my heart nor with my mind. Heart might stop,Mind can forget. So instead I love them with my soul. Soul never stops or forgets.♥

-  Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi  (September 30, 1207 – 1273)

Dad, Uncle Paul, Nellie and Mom.

Dad and Uncle Paul

Nellie and Mom.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. -Rumi

Although I may try to describe Love, 
When I experience it, I am speechless. 
-Rumi

Found this photo in the archives, this was the day after I got back from Asia and I recreated all of the asian dishes that I'd encountered along the way. One beautiful year ago <3

Toni Hilson

"Stay together friends. 

Don't scatter and sleep. 

Our friendship is made of being awake."

- Rumi

Toni Hilson is a family friend, and one (of the many) that showers my family and I with endless love, support, food, and positivity. At least once a week Toni stops over with a shit-ton of food: appetizers, entrees, seafood and alcohol (once a week - SEVERAL bottles of wine, and a few 6 packs...every.single.week). She's given my mom a whole bounty of plants and herbs for the garden and, knowing that my mom won't do anything for herself, she went on a shopping spree for my mom - giving her a whole new wardrobe. To call her "generous" would just be scratching the surface. The least that I can do in return for all that she's done and continues to do for my family, is to brag about her on the blog. As my Dad would say, "God Bless Toni Hilson": thank you for feeding our bellies and our hearts.  

Tonight's spread: Artichoke Asiago dip, Crab Claws, Shrimp, She Crab Soup, gourmet stuffed Olives, Pasta Salad and Potato Salad, Cheeses and Charcuterie.

Me and Toni.

Enjoying good food, good company, and an epic playlist (thanks to Pandora "The Lumineers" station).

Snapper says that the soup is good.

Sent from my iPhone

rumi repost

I love love love RUMI, I have even been traveling the past few months with a mini travel rumi book. I just checked Michelles yoga blog, www.yogababymomma.blogspot.com and she had this up. I wanted to repost it.....

Guest House

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

- Rumi

RUMI: the intellectual

The intellectual is always showing off;
the lover is always getting lost.
The intellectual runs away, afraid of drowning;
the whole business of love is to drown in the sea.
Intellectuals plan their repose;
lovers are ashamed to rest.
The lover is always alone,
even surrounded with people;
like water and oil, he remains apart.
The man who goes to the trouble
of giving advice to a lover
gets nothing. He's mocked by passion.
Love is like a musk. It attracts attention.
Love is a tree, and lovers are it's shade.

Empty The Glass of Your Desire

RUMI:
Empty The Glass of Your Desire

Join yourself to friends
And know the joy of the soul.
Enter the neighborhood of ruin
With those who drink to the dregs.

Empty the glass of your desire
So that you won't be disgraced.
Stop looking for something out there
And begin seeing within.

Open your arms if you want an embrace.
Break the earthen idols and release the radiance.
Why get involved with a hag like this world?
You know what it will cost.

And three pitiful meals a day
Is all that weapons and violence can earn.
At night when the Beloved comes
Will you be nodding on opium?

If you close your mouth to food,
You can know a sweeter taste.
Our Host is no tyrant. We gather in a circle.
Sit down with us beyond the wheel of time.

Here is the deal; give one life
And receive a hundred.
Stop growling like dogs,
And know the shepards care.

You keep complaining about others
And all they owe?
Well, forget about them;
Just be in His presence.
When the earth is this wide,
Why are you asleep in a prison?
Think of nothin but the source of thought.
Feed the soul; let the body fast.

Avoid knotted ideas;
Untie yourself in a higher world.
Limit your talk
For the sake of timeless communion.

Abandon life and the world,
And find the life OF the world.

Rumi Agrees With You, Too.

Recognized as perhaps the greatest mystical poet of Islam, Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) communicated something through his writing that has attracted spiritual seekers from almost every religion in the world, for hundreds of years. Even in his day, Rumi was sought out by merchants and kings, devout worshippers and rebellious seekers, famous scholars and common peasants, men and women. At his funeral, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Arabs, Persians, Turks and Romans honored him. Listen to his call for seekers of truth:

Come, come, whoever you are.

Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.

It doesn’t matter.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, even if you have broken your vow

a hundred times.

Come, yet again, come, come.

Rumi’s love and honor for all religious traditions was not always popular in his day, and often provoked criticism from the more dogmatic. A story is told that one such public challenge came from a Muslim dignitary, Qonavi, who confronted Rumi before an audience. “You claim to be at one with 72 religious sects,” said Qonavi, “but the Jews cannot agree with the Christians, and the Christians cannot agree with Muslims. If they cannot agree with each other, how could you agree with them all?” To this Rumi answered, “Yes, you are right, I agree with you too.”

{http://www.littleknownpubs.com/RumiIntro.htm}

Don't Let Your Throat Tighten

Rumi has been around for a long time, like -- a really, really, really long time. How I missed the memo - I have no idea - but I'm glad that I finally made the discovery, even if it was several years late. I went through several books of his while I was at Kripalu and found some poems that really resonated with me. Throughout the next two months I will be posting some of my favorites, so stay tuned. Here's Rumi #1:

Don't Let Your Throat Tighten

Don't let your throat tighten
with fear. Take sips of breath
all day and night, before death
closes your mouth.