Ruminations on Rumi, Vios, Spring and the Sweetness of Surrender

Spring blooms in every colour of green imaginable outside my office window and I am reminded of new life. In Greek, Vios means life and is the place where I held hands over dinner, discovering life again for the first time. Vios is one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle and is owned by a newly married widowed friend, whose new wife he met at The Healing Center in Seattle, a bereavement community for whom I offer what I can, from being Secretary of the Board, to my house on Vashon Island for healing retreats.In the flush of a weekend away, I am reveling in this new life, soaking in awe --  "Be helpless, dumbfounded, unable to say yes or no" as the Rumi poem goes. "Then a stretcher will come from Grace, to gather us up." This poem has a message of transformation, exposes a moment from when we "shut tight our window onto spirit" to ultimately letting go, allowing trust to take over: "So let us rather not be sure of anything, Beside ourselves, and only that, so miraculous beings will come running to help."I watch as the Solomon Seal outside my window unfurls into a tall arc, tiny tubular lime coloured bell flowers hanging down beneath its graduated leaves and feel its stretch toward light. I recognize a gaze full of joy and surrender to it during an impromptu swing dance in a brewery alive with the sound of Blue Grass violin, finally breaking free, letting go, trusting. There were gigantic fresh strawberries shared in the crisp winter wind on top of Hurricane Ridge and almonds tossed to an aggressive raven, shining black against the white snow. As the car climbed higher, the temperature dropped and on the way down, the temperature rose. We marveled at the many dualities in life, how they co-existed with the twinness of our palms as we compared the similarities of the lines etched there.And so, "Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute" in a loss of composure, we are vulnerable, contradictions fall away and there is a final surrender to the beauty of our natural state. "When we have totally surrendered to that beauty, we shall be a mighty kindness."To Vios. Opa!