December 5th, 2025

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 This world is like a mountain

Your echo depends on you.

If you scream good things,

the world will give it back.

If you scream bad things,

the world will give it back.

Even if someone says badly about you,

speak well about him.

Change your heart to change the world.”

Shams of Tabriz 

"Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you."

Loneliness is rarely about empty rooms. It is about carrying words you cannot say and truths you do not feel safe to share. Healing is learning to speak what matters most so you are no longer alone with it. This is the work of letting yourself be seen and known for who you really are.

Carl Jung

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The 40 Rules of Love

By Shams of Tabriz (1185-1248) 

One day, according to legend, Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, passing by, asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ Rumi scoffingly replied, ‘Something you cannot understand’ (i.e. knowledge that cannot be understood by the unlearned.) On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, ‘What is this?’ To which Shams replied, ‘Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand’ (i.e. knowledge that cannot be understood by the learned.) Shams’ forty observations about the nature of love and God, the first ten of which are illustrated here, can be read together (fine but a bit left brain, a bit ‘learned’ as Shams might say) or discretely, each a starting-point for reflection (more right brain, letting the mind wander laterally and make connections). Like life, and love, learning is not a race to the finish, but a voyage to the started 

Rule 1

How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves; we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we.