plot points

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” -Rumi

Yesterday, I watched the #SOTU. I considered doing laundry, considered taking a nap, but ended up at pilates instead. Earnest efforts are to be rewarded with gyros the next day.

Today, I re-read this Rumi quote and acknowledged that I did in fact - for most of my 20s - try to change the world in the exuberant way only pre-jaded adulthood can drive. I wasn't as keen on watering the other seeds in my metaphorical life's garden.

While busy attempting to find my super hero role, I somehow forgot to tend to the shoots cultivated by relationships, interests, and just basic down-time. I can write a mean petition, I can promote the hell out of a campaign, I can advocate for political prisoners, but I struggle to make it through a 60 minute yoga class.

Does this sound hopeless? I don't mean it to. In fact, I'm feeling more hopeful than I have in months. Talk therapy, biofeedback, and some new age-y methods have all culminated in this new, hopeful reality.

I'm heeding Rumi's advice now. To impact the world, especially my own world, I need to change myself. I will quiet my thoughts when they swirl, whirl, and twirl, like dervishes in the wind. I will embrace time when there's nothing to do but cast yarn. I will water those seedlings that have long thirsted for my care in hopes of offering the world more than just a one-off rose plucked from a single plot. Next time I decide to change the world, I'm going armed with an entire bouquet.