Rock it

I was at a friend's for dinner a couple of nights ago and got to spend time with a new friend, Annie Lalla, who said the most astounding thing I have to pass along to you now.

We were talking of the ups and downs of life, of what to "do" with an emotion that surges up, less-than-comfortable. She said, "I always think of rocking my emotions to sleep like a baby."

Imagine. Holding each emotion close to your heart, gently, and rocking, letting it spin out its howling, its tantrum, its longing, its misery. Until with enough time, warmth, love and compassion, it quiets and it comes home.

Incidentally, Annie has a fabulous last name, Lalla, also the name of a woman ecstatic Sufi poet. Here's one of Sufi Lalla's gems:


I was passionate,
filled with longing,
I searched
far and wide.

But the day
that the Truthful One
found me,
I was at home.