January 1, 2018
This is how a human being can change:
There is a worm
addicted to eating grape leaves.
Suddenly, she wakes up,
call it grace, whatever, something
wakes her, and she is no longer a worm.
She is the entire vineyard,
and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,
a growing wisdom and joy
that does not need to devour.
– Jalāl ad-Dīn Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks (with liberty taken to change gendered pronouns to she/her)
