Once a woman asked me, “How does it feel to be a man?”
And I replied, “My dear, I am not so sure.”
Then she said, “Well, aren’t you a man?”
And this time I replied,
“I view gender as a beautiful animal
That people often take for a walk on a leash
And might enter in some odd contest
To try to win strange prizes.
My dear, a better question for Hafiz would have been,
‘How does it feel to be a heart?’
For all I know is Love,
And I find my heart Infinite and Everywhere!”
Hafiz
from I Heard God Laughing, Poems of Hope and Joy by Daniel Ladinsky
The poetry of Hafiz always makes me smile. How could it not?! He is a master at lovingly redirecting my mind to a deeper truth…one that cannot be appreciated exclusively from the perspective of my human nature.
Who of us has ever contemplated how it feels to be a heart? To do this we would need to believe we are the Divine Itself expressing through these human forms. We would need to believe there is something greater happening than our daily human existence. We would need to believe Love Itself pulses through the entire universe.
How does it feel to be a heart? It feels like nothing that words can adequately describe….but here goes! It feels eternal, timeless and tender. My gaze softens and my body rests at ease. Everything seems perfect.
What does it feel like to you?
From my heart,
Paula
