Hafiz: "Now Is the Time"

Now is the time to know

That all that you do is sacred.

Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.

Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.

Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.

My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?

What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?

Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.

This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.

Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.

"Today" by Hafiz. From the Penguin publication The Gift: Poems of Hafiz. Copyright © 1999 Daniel Ladinsky and used with his permission.
 
Art credit: "Raking Leaves," photograph by Chris Brown Photography. 

Curator's note: Today's post is a collaboration with subscriber Chris Brown, who selected one of his photographs to accompany Hafiz's poem. Chris writes of his selection: "Doing simple things, like chopping wood, carrying water and raking leaves, nourishes sacredness." He also notes that the photograph is "a tongue-in-cheek misrepresentation" of his wife, "as she is an energizer bunny, and never stops moving. It was a challenge to get her to sit still long enough to make this picture. "