Whirling like a UFO on my roof (Photo: Eddie Chu)
You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you,
but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art…
— Rumi
This morning, I started off the day whirling with Sufis in Beirut. After the room stopped spinning, we all sat down to sip some delicious Arabic coffee–and compare notes about our travels throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. It was an assembly of not only whirling dervishes–but wandering dervishes too. Since most of the Sufis there didn’t speak English, I got to practice my Arabic in describing my recent travels through Morocco to visit the country’s Sufi shrines–from Casablanca to Fez.
To whirl into the day feels different than whirling at night. But before I say how, perhaps you might try it yourself–whirling counter-clockwise 5 minutes in the morning, and then 5 minutes at night–to clear the mind. Perhaps you’ll notice the difference too…
Today's Arabic coffee with Sufis in Beirut (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
