quote and

"Life itself provides the substance to make spiritual practice a reality."

-- Neil Douglas-Klotz, The Sufi Book of Life

That's what the book of meditations opened up to this morning. Speaking straight to my here/now, as these magical books so often do. If anyone happened to read my moment of floundering on the subject of spirituality last week...thanks for your patience. And maybe for your silence as well. It wasn't the time for all that yet. Heartfelt thanks to the two good friends who offered me different sides of the coin with their perspectives, in the sweet currency of honest and respectful talk. For now, the room in my house that holds that particular and complicated subject is too disorganized to get into. Maybe someday I'll clean it out and invite people in. Maybe I'll write a book or something, that two or three people in the world will really really want to read. For now, the quote above gives voice to my gratitude for what the moment brings.

Here's a bit more from today's reading, though, because it's good for a laugh. And because I, for one, can relate to these suggestions on how not to meet a difficult situation. This comes from the store of wonderful Sufi stories on their clown/coyote icon, Mullah Nasruddin, which are quoted often in the book.

"One night Mullah Nasruddin awoke to hear a thief entering his house. Mullah went downstairs and began to help the thief load possessions into a bag.
'What are you doing?' asked the thief.
'It looks like I'm moving, so I'm helping you!' said Mullah.
Another time Mullah woke up to hear the thief breaking in again. This time Mullah hid in the closet and listened to the thief banging around, trying to find something to steal. Finally the thief came to the closet and opened it to find Mullah there.
'What? Have you been there all along?' said the thief, afraid that Mullah would call the police.
'Yes,' said Mullah. 'I was so embarrassed that I had nothing to steal that I thought I should hide.'"