Words work wonders in relieving my stress

I stumbled across comforting words in a blog post on on a night I was irritated by what seemed to be a useless, unorganized meeting that followed another chorus of "why did you buy that?"

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundred of ways to kneel and kiss the ground”

-Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi

Years ago, I would remember the words to remind myself how important it is to "love what we do, do what we love" as I contemplated leaving journalism.

The quote, with a focus on love what we do, came back when I accepted a buyout that would allow me time to determine where my next paychecks should originate.

But when I read the words in Doug Berch's "Embracing the Creative Life" post, it was the part about hundreds of ways to kneel that spoke directly to me.

Doug, who makes beautiful dulcimers and music, reflected how an older friend had advised him as a teenager that creative people don't always fit into the mainstream and happiness is not the same for all.

The Michigan man's blending of words helped me see that different approaches can all be right. He was speaking of passionate people in pursuit of creativity. I heard that all meetings don't have to follow the published agendas, all resources don't have to treat comments the same way and that it is OK that I prefer big, get-it-all-now shopping trips while others want buy-only-when-it's-on the list excursions.

Or as George and Ira Gershwin said in 1937 and the feuding Holly Harper and Sarah Whedon sang in the May 3 "Brothers and Sisters" TV show

"You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
...We better call the calling off off."