• Beth Chapman
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Media

21 Jan

Tipping Point

Beth Blog 0 0

IMG-0290-3

A week of business travel and tests of mind, body, and heart, set between two Rumi bookends:

The Old Woman and the Falcon
 
When you give a noble falcon
to a fussy old woman who knows nothing of falconry, she will clip its wings short, for its own good.
Young man, where has your mother been that your toenails have gotten this long? Those talons are how the falcon hunts its food.
The old woman fixes him tutmaj, dumpling stew. He won’t touch it. Too good to eat my tutmaj, huh? She ladles some broth and holds it to his beak. Her anger builds, and suddenly she pours the ladle of hot soup over his head.
Tears come from those beautiful falcon eyes. He remembers his former life, the king’s love-whistle, the great circling over the ocean, the distances that condense so quickly to a point.
Falcon tears are food for a true human being, perfume for Gabriel.
Your soul is the king’s falcon,
who says, This old woman’s rage
does not touch my glory or my discipline.
And the other bookend:

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

Life isn’t as punctual in handing out test grades. We can go through the entire curriculum and not know how we performed. And then, one has to ask, with whom or what am I competing?

A doorsill plane window. A sliver moon at sunset. Two worlds touching.  A different kind of falcon’s wings. No competition. Only a heart soaring on falcon’s wings vowing never to go back to sleep. Awake in the beauty of loving and kneeling.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Related


Twitter Facebook

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Walking the Earth

  • IMG_2258
  • IMG_2259
  • IMG_2262
  • IMG_2263
  • IMG_2255
  • IMG_2256
  • IMG_2251
  • IMG_2254
  • IMG_2252

Recent Posts

  • Celebrating Mama’s Day
  • Whispered Trilogy
  • Spring Equinox
  • Polarities
  • Silence Broken

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Categories

  • Blog
  • Media

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2020
  • August 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • September 2017
  • May 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014

Recent Comments

  • Deborah Mars on Celebrating Mama’s Day
  • Deborah Mars on Spring Equinox
  • Beth on Spring Equinox
  • Deborah Mars on Spring Equinox
  • Deborah Mars on Polarities


  • Home
  • Bio
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Media

Copyright © 2014. Beth Chapman. All rights reserved.
 
 

Loading Comments...