The Guest House was the first poem in the list, and as such, it caught my attention. The language used addressed emotions that we, as human beings, feel so deeply. No matter what caused the emotions, Rumi proposes that we accept them and allow ourselves to relish in the moment. Emotions are as an unexpected visitor, arriving quickly and all at once. We have no time to prepare or ready ourselves for the moment that is being brought forth by these chemical experiences, and yet the very brains that create the chemicals needed to experience these emotions are the same brains that wildly conjecture about the lack of necessity of expressing emotion publicly.
Often we have no time to prepare for the arrival of these emotions, driven by hormones and events of daily life, but we still must deal with them. There is an expectation in society for us to sometimes cast aside our emotions, especially for men. "You're a wuss if you cry," and other such sayings that combat our natural instincts. And the sad part is that we accept this damaging idea, internalize it, and pass it on to our own children. This. This is why Rumi must remind us to "Welcome and entertain them [our emotions] all!"
To be emotionally drained is not to be damaged, nor is it to be defective or weak. To disallow the feeling of emotions is to place a burden on the soul, binding the pain to the spirit. Women, who are regarded as weaker than men– likely because of the open expression of emotion– have one-seventh the suicide rate that men do, and I would postulate that this difference is due to women's ability to allow emotions to run free.
"Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably." Rumi speculates that when an emotion takes its course through you, leaving you empty, that it may actually be preparing you for something, saying, "He may be clearing you out for some new delight." I would compare this to the Bhagavad Gita, where to be empty is to be enlightened. The purpose of life is to reach enlightenment, and emotions are a part of life. To be sad is to be human. To be happy is to be human. To feel is to be human. Psychopaths are not regarded so kindly, but they show no emotion, no remorse. Is that not what is expected of us by society?
"The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in." There will be times that you will be angry, that you will be sad, that you will feel let down by life. Rumi revels in the emotions, no matter whether they are regarded as good or bad emotions. Such as with the Tao Te Ching, where nothing is truly good or bad, but two halves of a whole. Yin and Yang, black and white, hard and soft. Rumi finds value in feeling any emotion at all because to feel is to be human.
"Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond." Rumi tells us that emotions help us traverse through the maze that human life is. Keats would compare the natural expression of emotions to nature. The fact that human beings have emotions is proof in and of itself of the value of feeling emotions. Whether you believe in a God or in evolution, either way, emotions are somehow beneficial to human existence. If they had not been, said God would not have created us with them, and due to "survival of the fittest" emotions would have evolved out, and gone into extinction. So, like Rumi, be grateful that you feel emotions because you could have been a psychopath.
