Within tears, find hidden laughter
Seek treasures amid ruins, sincere one.
—Rumi
When we genuinely, deeply ponder the collapse of the way of life we have known probably since birth, we can feel unspeakably afraid. If we allow ourselves to contemplate all the losses the demise will entail, we may find ourselves consumed with sadness, our hearts broken and aching. Surges of anger may permeate the body as we consider how unjust the destruction will be, particularly as it impacts innocent lives. Subsequent to all of these feelings, we may find ourselves shutting down, overcome with numbing despair. Paralysis. Can’t move. Can’t speak. Total and utter hopelessness.
I have just described the four of the major feelings we are likely to experience in a chaotic world of unraveling: fear, grief, anger, and despair. The one I did not mention is the one noted by Rumi. “Within tears, find hidden laughter.” Note that the laughter is hidden. It is our challenge to find it.
“Seek treasures amid ruins.” Out of the rubble—literal or symbolic—extract treasures, because whether we realize it or not, they are there. As I have stated earlier in this book, even inmates in Nazi death camps found humor and the treasures of love, compassion, courage, and mercy in the hell they inhabited.
One useful tool for discovering laughter and treasures in a collapsing world is to pay careful attention to the ones we found at other difficult times in our lives, in those other “little deaths” through which we moved. What were the treasures? How did we bring them forth? Where was the humor, even in the midst of horror?
Rumi calls his reader “sincere one.” You would not be reading these words were you not sincere. Allow your sincerity to assist you in feeling all of your feelings about collapse, including laughter, joy, play, and the other treasures amid the rubble.