your destiny is to burn with radiance

Photo by Chase Clark on Unsplash

IT TRIED TO PREPARE ME

The clear night sky tried to prepare me for what it knew would someday happen;

it began to show me ever deeper aspects of its splendor, and then one evening just directly asked, Will you be able to withstand your own magnificence?

I thought I was just hearing things, until a spring orchard I was passing my days with

at the height of its glory burst into song, about our — every human’s — destiny to burn with radiance.

Still I felt my ears were playing tricks on me until the morning came when God tore apart my chest . . . needing more room to bloom inside.

I began to roll through the streets in ecstasy. Everyone thought I was crazy.

I hope everyone someday knows how blessed I was. You will.

Ladinsky, Daniel. “It Tried to Prepare Me.” A Year with Hafiz; Daily Contemplations, Penguin Books, 2011, p. 71.