Let us work together for unity and love...M.K Gandhi

May the sun
bring you new energy by day.

May the moon
softly restore you by night.

May the rain
wash away your worries.

May the breeze
blow new strength into your being.

May you walk
gently through the world and know

its beauty all the days of your life.

~ Apache Prayer
.

Our divine courage, freedom, and Light! ~ Hafiz

We have not come here
to take prisoners
But to surrender ever more deeply
to freedom and joy.

We have not come
into this exquisite world
to hold ourselves hostage
from love.

Run, my dear,
from anything
that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings,

Run like hell, my dear,
from anyone likely to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
those aspects of obedience
that stand outside of our house
and shout to our reason

"oh please, oh please
come out and play."

For we have not come here
to take prisoners,
or to confine
our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever
and ever more deeply

Our divine courage,
freedom,
and Light!

~ Hafiz
(We Have not Come to Take Prisoners)
"The Gift"

My songs are like bees...by Rabindranath Tagore

My songs are like bees;
they follow through the air

some fragrant trace --
some memory --
of you,

to hum around your shyness,
eager for its hidden store.

When the freshness of dawn
droops in the sun,

when in the noon
the air hangs low with heaviness
and the forest is silent,

My songs return home,
their languid wings
dusted with gold..!

~ Rabindranath Tagore

In love... what else matters? ~ Rumi

All year round 

the lover is mad

Unkempt, 

lovesick, 

and in despair

Without love 

there is nothing but grief

In love... 

what else matters?

~ Rumi

-- Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

Don't go in the direction of darkness: Suns exist..!...by Rumi

Don't take a wooden sword into battle.
Go, find one of steel;
then march forward with joy.

The Beloved's protection is Truth's sword:
your time with him is worth as
much as the cup of life itself.

All the wise have said the same:
the one who knows him
is his mercy to His Lovers ..

Companionship
with the beautiful one
makes you one of them.

Though you're rock or marble,
you'll become a jewel
when you reach the man of heart.

Plant the love
of the Beloved
within your spirit;

Don't give your heart to anything,
but the love of those
whose hearts are glad.

Don't go to the
neighborhood of despair:
there is hope.

Don't go
in the direction of darkness:
Suns exist..!

~ Rumi
(Companionship With the Beloved)
MATHNAWI 1,
714-717, 721-724
(translated by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski)
Art by Rassouli