Recently I bought a few books featuring the collected works of the poet Rumi. The book I’m reading tonight features poems on love and divinity and the soul’s journey.

This poem particularly reminds me of how afraid we are of death (or change, or transformation, or leaving something familiar behind…).

For instance, people often get nervous about the Death Card in the Tarot. The truth is that the Death Card is generally positive; it’s about profound transformation and change, the kind you can’t retreat from. The way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The transformation from one state of being to another is permanent, there’s no going back. This is what the Death Card in the Tarot symbolizes and this is what Rumi is talking about in this poem.

The power of death – and of its inevitable partner, Rebirth – is constant, normal, ever-present. And it’s far more powerful and peaceful when we move WITH it, when we accept and surrender and release what wants to “die” so that what must come next can be “born.”

Harness this energy and its power; honor your fear of change, yes, but stand in the courage and faith and permanence that transformation and rebirth are always – always – what follow Death.