Hi everyone, Carly Taylor here for this week's My Joe Monday. So I'll be really honest with you. The last few weeks have been pretty tough. Some of you aware that Paul had open heart surgery and it's been quite a journey. It's, of course it's been quite a journey for him, but also for me and the kids. He's doing really, really well now, which is amazing. And so it was a challenging time in a very short space of time. And I came across this poem by pure chance. I had
never heard it before. Some of you may have heard of the poet, but it really stopped me in my tracks, and its impact actually created this space for me to pivot, which is what I really needed to do. It's by Roomy Remy is a Persian poet Sufi mystic from the thirteenth century, which is just so amazing. And somehow this amazing human across centuries wrote down these words that really hit exactly where they needed to hit. So I'm going to read you the poem. It's called the guest House.
This being human is a guest house every morning, and your arrival a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if there are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight, the dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet
them at the door, laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. I sat with these words, and they made me realize something that while I was going through this sort of challenging time, that I'd really been
resisting how I was feeling. And when life throws that sort of discomfort our way, which it inevitably will, whether it's stress or sadness or self doubt, our instinct is to fight it, to push it away, to distract ourselves, numb it, over analyze it, anything but not to feel it. And the more we resist, the heavier it can get. But what Rumy is saying is quite radical, and this is what amazes me. That is a thirteenth century poet, and it just shows that humans in the thirteenth century
had the same struggles. Their thoughts and emotions as we do today. So Rumy is saying welcome it. Not because pain is fun and not because you want it, but because it's part of the deal. It's part of the deal of being human. And this being human is like a guest house. So some days joy knocks on the door, and other days it's grief barges in and flips you
weled upside down. But every emotion, even the ugly ones, if you want to call them that, or the difficult ones, the uncomfortable ones, they come with something to teach us. And if we can stop resisting, when we allow these emotions to come and go, we stop being victims of them. They don't control us anymore. And that's what this poem
gave me these past few weeks. It reminded me to stop fighting, stop resisting, stop over thinking, and just allow to feel it, to move through the emotions and trust that, just like every other emotion, it will pass. So this week, if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and pause, take a deep breath, and instead of resisting, notice that urge to resist, Notice the emotion and allow them to come, let them go, and trust that each one is shaping you in ways that you might not
see yet. Because when we stop resisting life, we can start truly living it. So I hope those insights have been valuable for you. I hope you have a great week, and I will catch you next week. See ya.