The Satchel
The Satchel
What is it you carry?
A long life is a heavy life,
but before you can grow old
you must encounter
someone dragging a satchel
containing the light and the shadow
of their lived experience.
When you do
be sure to ask them,
What is it you carry?
If they won't answer,
ask them again gently.
Maybe they will tell you
they're carry everything
that ever happened to them:
the good,
the bad,
the forgotten,
and the transformed.
Those you encounter
carrying the lightest of loads
know it's what you do
with everything in that bag
which makes all the difference.
Dervishes gamble everything,
they lose and win the other,
the emptiness which animates this.
~ Rumi
