Learn the alchemy true human beings know:

the moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given,

the door will open.

Welcome difficulty as a familiar comrade.

Joke with torment brought by the friend.

Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover,

and are taken off.

That undressing,

and the naked body underneath,

is the sweetness that comes after grief.

The hurt you embrace becomes joy.

Call it to you where it can change.

A silk worm eating leaves makes a cocoon.

Each of us weaves a chamber of leaves and sticks.

Silk worms begin to truly exist as they disappear inside that room.

Without legs we fly.

When I stop speaking, this poem will close,

and open its silent wings.

     -Rumi