February 24th, 2026

Closer than Close

“I am so close, I may look distant.
So completely mixed with you, I may look separate.
So out in the open, I appear hidden.
So silent, because I am constantly talking with you."

Rumi

The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along

Rumi

All I know is love

A billion times God has turned man

Into Himself

You stand in line for the

Highest gift

For His generosity cannot end.

But best to bring an instrument along

While waiting in the cold desert

And make some dulcet sounds

To accompany the palms’ swaying arms

That are casting silhouettes

Against the sky’s curtain

From our fire.

Remind the Friend of your desire

And great patience.

A billion times God has turned man

Back into Herself.

We all stand in line

For the highest

Gift.

“Back Into Herself”

Hafez 

I
Know of beauty
That no one has ever
Known.

How could that be possible
When I seem
So new in infinite time?

It is because God belongs to only you!

Did you hear that?
Did you hear what Hafiz just said?

God belongs to only you!

It is the only reasonable payment
For a single
Tear.

“For a Single Tear”

Hafez

Running
Through the streets
Screaming,
Throwing rocks through windows,
Using my own head to ring
Great bells,
Pulling out my hair,
Tearing off my clothes,
Tying everything I own
To a stick,
And setting it on
Fire.
What else can Hafiz do tonight
To celebreate the madness,
The joy,
Of seeing God
Everywhere!
“Everywhere”

Hafez

Etty Hillesum 

This morning I am wonderfully peaceful. Just like a storm that has spent itself. I have noticed that this always happens following days of intense inner striving after clarity, birth pangs with sentences and thoughts that refuse to be born and make tremendous demands on you. Then suddenly it all drops away, all of it, and a benevolent tiredness enters the brain, then everything feels calm again, then I am filled with a sort of bountifulness, even toward myself, and a veil envelops me through which life seems more serene and often much friendlier as well.

Etty

There is nothing closer to you than yourself. If you don’t know your self, how will you know others? You might say, “I know myself,” but you are mistaken…. The only thing you know about your self is your physical appearance. The only thing you know about your inside (batin, your unconscious) is that when you are hungry you eat, when you are angry, you fight, and when you are consumed by passion, you make love. In this regard you are equal to any animal. You have to seek the reality within yourself…. What are you? Where have you come from and where are you going. What is your role in the world? Why have you been created? Where does your happiness life? If you would like to know yourself, you should know that you are created by two things. One is your body and your outer appearance (zahir) which you can see with your eyes. The other is your inner forces (batin). This is the part you cannot see, but you can know with your insight. The reality of your existence is in your inwardness (batin, unconscious). Everything is a servant of your inward heart.

Al-Ghazalli