The Moon is staring upon me like a frenzied lover, stars blush as the rose blooms in the cheek of a young fair maiden. The night is ticking by- tick tock tick tock- but sleep is far away from these swollen eyes.
My beginner’s mind is like the brook drinking in its first drop from the dew of Grace which falls eternally from heaven. It often runs ever forward towards the One Ocean, seeking and spilling, meandering along over rocks and down falls ever searching for the why and how of This Path. This time it is the rise of spring, the arrival of the journey’s naissance. The Message is in celebration of Diversity and Hope with a tinge of fullness in the lips of a lover showing that radiant face to me. There, in this rapt stillness, breathing down the stars with many young faces twinkling back to the Earth Mother I feel alive to be so included in this sacred dance. The fecund soil beneath my very feet breathes new life and life abundantly lifting me from earth to heaven and back again. For in this auspicious time when the Eternal Sun awakens all of nature around, under and through me, I stretch and throw off the cloak of winters work now completed and the Circle starts again.
In the mountains of Chitral, where I grew up, spring is usually overwhelming. A long chilly winter locally called ” Chillah” turns the whole valley grey with the chill of winter’s bone. At its depths when this dreary season wipes the mountains bare, hope is abandoned as the rays of the sun grow ever fainter in the shadows of the valley floor. 
Yet when spring returns each year, with it comes Hope painting wide swathes across the valley in lush strokes of her paint brush, creating yet again, another canvas of Divine Reality. With this new landscape, the smell of spring is on the air, with every plant and animal and person beaming with new found awareness. The wind, once harsh and corrosive, now caresses each growing radiant molecule of life.
With the kiss of Spring not only in Chitral but the entire northern hemisphere of earth is awash in many shades and colors. The azure sky above is filled with sparkling wine sharing its dew with the meadow washed with its Divine Glance. The flowers, eyes open, the willow tree is clothed once again, hence winter bows to spring like an elephant to a king. The birds migrate to fill the sky with a tapestry of undulating color and shapes. Bees and other insects awaken from hibernation to extract pollen in every pregnant flower to sow for future generations. Looking around, it appears that the entirety of nature has returned to rejoice in unison singing “Celebrate” to all who have ears to hear this Divine Symphony in all its names, shapes and forms seen and unseen to the world.
The sheer breathtaking beauty of spring is now enjoyed by the entire Universe, bringing the reign of Unity once again. There are signs for those with eyes which can see within this divine tapestry, asNasir Khusraw alludes to in verse
“If you are not in need of the proof, the proof is not in need of you”.
Spring comes with the message of diversity and hope; it reminds us to celebrate and “raise us above the distinctions and differences which divide” (HIK); also to appreciate the colors, to rejoice in the strength and vitality felt all around, with flower blooms to shadow out the weakness of barren fields, weeds and darkness.
I’m only student of the Cosmos, my eyes just started hatching out from the egg of breath brining Light to spheres of darkness and deception, I might be wrong, a so called genius. What have you done to the world and what enriches others to learn of this new found diversity as taught by the natural world? Didn’t you know that you are the vicegerent of Allah to spread your heart strings far and wide” no wider than the heart is wide??”
O you Mullah/Rabbi/Priest- what have you done to the people of the earth except barking at them? Your force is supplication to your ego self, not the will of Allah The One.
Now where should we seek thou hand O Allah?? A mixture of tulips, roses, daffodils and sun flower-all blend their colors with each other to give glory and a living, shining example of Your radiant face? But many humans bowing to their lower selves and lost the seed of the Soul- the direction of the blessed tree from where the oil lights the lamp of understanding.
According to a key verse in the Holy Quran- this is the one important aspect of the purpose of human diversity:
” O mankind, We have created you male and female, and We have made you into tribes and nations in order that you might come to know one another”- Al Hujurat ( 49:13)
We need to know that the real peace comes from accepting ” diversity as a source of nourishment rather than burden” (Imam Shah Karim al Husayni). Allah (SWT) does see colours. We need to understand that it was the idea of the Creator for the world to be a colourful place. So instead of being divided because of cast, creed and colours, we need to celebrate it like flowers. But first let’s seek out the very direction of the blessed tree for a continues guidance.
In service to the Real,
Nooruddin Jalal
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