Dance when you’re broken open. Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance when you’re perfectly free.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī,(1207-1273),
more popularly known simply as Rumi,
was a 13th-century Persian poet
“I know many listeners are familiar with this poem as translated by Coleman Barks. Rumi is a wonderful, wonderful poet. I love this quote because, before I was hurt, I had a relationship with dance. But I also think of this as a metaphor for how we can be in our lives when we’re working and moving through pain. Pain doesn’t seem like a very happy dance partner. So how do we learn to dance with it? How do we learn to be with the pain even in the midst of it? How do we learn to move through our life with pain as a dance? To think of pain in this way inspires me.”
Sarah Anne Shockley, author of The Pain Companion:
Everyday Wisdom for Living With and Moving Beyond Chronic Pain
