The Guest House by Rumi, a poem for the broken-hearted

In your darkest moments, when your heart feels tender and broken wide open, a good poem can act as a balm for your soul.

Such is the popular poem ‘The Guest House’ by 13th century Persian poet Rumi. Frequently recited in mindfulness circles, this poem is a reminder not to resist the thoughts and emotions passing through you but to meet them with courage, warmth, and respect. Can you see them as clouds in the sky perhaps, and observe them without recoiling from the, drowning in them, or intellectualizing them away?

These seemingly unwelcome guests in the guesthouse of your mind will scrub away at everything that is untrue or unhelpful, if you let them. And not to worry, being guests, they’ll eventually depart as well. Here’s the poem.

The Guest House

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’re 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.