Spring Soul Cleaning

The Guest House by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

I've written before about poems like the one above that have been used so many times in workshops, retreats, meetings, that they've lost their meaning for me.  This Rumi poem was one of them until this week when I finally reread it for the first time in over a year.  It was as if The Guesthouse had been renovated and I could appreciate it again in a new way.

In the past I've always focused on that idea of how I can be open to those emotions and situations that I don't necessarily want to entertain, much less welcome.  This time, however, it was the idea of making space for new delight that really spoke to me.  Even though it's said that nature abhors a vacuum, I've come to realize that rather than rushing into redecorate when a corner of my soul has been swept clean.  I need some time to sit with that empty space, make sure all the vestiges of clutter are really gone, that I'm still not attached to the old stuff that used to be present before I can really be open to the new delight on the horizon. 

I feel like maybe I'm in that season of new delight.  The lemony scent of my previously polished soul is fading and now the empty space is finally ready.  For what, I'm not sure.  I'm waiting to see what new arrival tomorrow morning brings.

How about you?  What's going on in your guesthouse?  Is it a time of welcoming?  Cleaning?  Awareness?  Delight?