"Raise your words,
not your voice,
it's rain that grows flowers,
not thunder."
Jalal al-Din Rumi
This morning I was lost for ideas. Many things happened in the last few days, and I'm still processing them. I've received invaluable lessons from unexpected people; I experimented with new practices; I read inspiring content. Though, all these things are still spinning in my head while I'm trying to figure out how they connect and what they are trying to teach me.
I stared into the void for a while. All these thoughts were spinning in my mind, and me unable to write a word.
Finally, when I opened the laptop and checked my chaotic notes to look for a starting point, I saw this little poem from Rumi. And I thought that it had never felt so right.
In such divisive times, so many are raising their voice. Someone to impose their truth, others just to be heard. But when everyone is screaming, it becomes impossible to hear anything. The words get lost because the only thing that matter is to be louder than the rest.
They say that the farther we are from each other, the louder we have to shout to deliver the message.
But what if it's the opposite?
What if it's the shouting pushing us apart?
What would happen if, as Rumi suggests, we lower our voices and, instead, we raise our words?