– Rumi (from Gold translated by Haleh Liza Gafori // delicious spoiler: Haleh is a Season Four guest)
Good poetry is inherently spiritual. It is a clown car of interpretation. Once a door of perception is opened, endless and surprising “Ahas” tumble out. When you have a spiritual teacher who embodies a poem, their words become thunder and contemplation soaks you.
The teacher who is having the greatest impact on me right now does this. And this teacher is uneducated and illiterate. This teacher is my 4-years old son. Two days ago my wife Laura had a meeting with his teacher. Laura learned that that morning our son had been spouting mildly inappropriate song lyrics to his classmates, nothing profane, but probably not best for a preschool. My son was getting laughs from his classmates, so he continued with kids he doesn’t know as well. His teacher witnessing a quieter kid coming out of his shell gave him space to continue his antics. Thinking this was the end of the story, I chuckled, and headed to the kitchen. And then, Laura said, the unexpected happened.
My son turned to his teachers and started calling them out by name quoting poetry. Rumi to be exact. “Micci, your naked freedom is your shield!” “Taylor, your naked freedom is your shield!”
As Laura was telling me this, I was so proud and dying laughing. I grabbed the compost bucket to bring it out to the backyard when my teacher ran to the doorway. He had shed ALL of his clothes and was wearing nothing but a smile. He had heard Laura relaying the story from his morning at school. My son, embodying the poem he memorized, shouted the thunderous words at me, “Papa, your naked freedom is your shield.” As I walked outside I responded, “My naked freedom is my shield!” He shouted louder, “Papa! Your naked freedom is your shield!” So I shouted louder, “My naked freedom is my shield!” Like that scene from Good Will Hunting, The words finally landed and grafted themselves to my jangling bones. And of course, I turned to see my neighbor standing there with his dog, to which I only said, “hey neal.”
Your life is your primary teacher. We exercise spiritual practices to soften our sensitivity to the Spirit that blows where it will in our life. It takes consistent vulnerability to allow, respect, and invite all of life to be your teacher. This is the shield that protects your heart from hardening. I forget this often. So to get my attention my teacher sometimes has to get naked and shout, “Your naked freedom is your shield.”
Hey everyone, it’s Paul and this is Contemplify, where we seek to kindle the examined life for contemplatives in the world.
In this season of Contemplify, I am eager to share with you conversations with contemplative artists who swim in mystic waters, writers who trace their fingers along ancient lines, an elder who seeks the company of trees, a scholar who records the silent desert, and so much more. I find a naked freedom in this season and cannot wait to share it with you. The first episode comes out next week, with a new episode following two weeks after that.
You must be logged in to post a comment.