I have dearly loved and have connected to Doug’s[1] quoting of Rumi at the end of class.  It has inspired me to purchase and read many collections of Rumi.  I do have to admit that sometime I do zone out at this point in class and on this day I somewhat did so until the mention of mercury.   Fortunately Doug repeats the quote a second time which I listen to more closely.

Mercury is a most interesting substance being like a mirror reflecting what is around it.  It can be still with reflections like a calm lake but yet is easily disturbed by its surroundings, creating distortions of the images reflected upon it.  Much like each of us, we are at times calm and at peace then at other times reflecting distorted images of what is around us.  We are much like Mercury in that as Doug stated, “there is great energy in staying in our center”, presenting a true reflection of ourselves and what surrounds us.

What really perked my attention in this reading of Rumi was the mention of mercury.  mercury has a particular significance to me in that as a child I played with drops of Mercury, being totally fascinated with its ability to break apart and then draw itself back together and its ability to reflect images of its surroundings.  Of course in this day and age a single small drop of Mercury will shut down an entire school for days to clean it up.  It is interesting how such a beautiful substance can inspire such poetry from one as Rumi but yet also can be so harmful.  Like so many things it is can be both inspirational and a curse.  I think it might be my childhood handling of Mercury that both gave me some inspiration and perhaps caused a bit of mad hatter in me.

Larry  Mixson   04-18-2008

[1] I took weekly yoga classes with Doug Keller for several years and went to a number of his workshops.