MarySue's Mindful Memos

A man goes to sleep in the town where he has always lived,

and he dreams he’s living in another town.

In the dream, he believes the reality of the dream town.

This world is that kind of sleep,

The dust of so many crumbled cities settles over us like a forgetful doze.

But we are much older than those cities.

We began as a mineral

We emerged into plant life and into the animal state,

And then into being human.

And always we have forgotten our former states –

Except in early spring

When we slightly recall being green again.

That’s how a young person turns toward a teacher,

as a baby leans toward the breast,

without knowing the secret of its desire, yet turning instinctively.

Humanity is being led along an evolving course,

through this migration of intelligences.

and though we seem to be sleeping,

there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream,

and that will eventually startle us

back to the truth of who we are.

~Rumi (translation by Coleman Barks)