Me and my shadow

Be still, be quiet, and listen. Think about this. Our spirit guides, our guardian angels, our higher selves, or whatever else we choose to call them, are like our shadows. They are inseparable. But we have become so accustomed to them that we have forgotten that they are always present and ready to guide.

Me and my shadow
Strolling down the avenue

Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall
Like the seashore clings to the sea
Like you’ll never get rid of your shadow

Al Jolson / Dave Dreyer / Billy Rose
1927

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Shadow and Light Source Both

How does a part of the world leave the world?

How does wetness leave water?

Do not try to put out fire by throwing on
more fire! Do not wash a wound with blood.

No matter how fast you run, your shadow
keeps up. Sometimes it is in front!

Only full overhead sun diminishes your shadow.

But that shadow has been serving you.

What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is
your candle. Your boundaries are your quest.

I could explain this, but it will break the
glass cover on your heart, and there is no
fixing that.

You must have shadow and light source both.

Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.

When from that tree feathers and wings sprout on you,
be quieter than a dove. Do not even open your mouth for
even a coo.

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, 1207

Balkh, Khwarezmian Empire, 1273

Konya, Sultanate of Rum
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, and more popularly simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, faqih, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran.