Between Hafiz and Rumi: The Body as a Temple of Love
This fall, as the leaves turn and life settles into the quiet rhythm of the season, I find myself beginning something new — not only a new quarter at Sofia University but a new embodiment of who I am becoming. I am taking Embodied Spirituality, a course that feels like it was written for the chapter of life I’m living now.
It is our family’s first fall and winter without my beloved aunt — our matriarch, our anchor, our heart. Her absence has shaped the atmosphere of our days, inviting a slower, more contemplative rhythm. Becoming embodied is not only the course I’m studying — it’s the very path I’m walking. Last July, when I reclaimed love, I didn’t know it was only the beginning of another unfolding — a return home to the body, to presence, and to love as it lives in flesh and memory.
This quarter, my companion on the journey is Rumi.
💗 A Poem a Day: Returning to the Body of Love
I have never spent time with Rumi like this before. I ordered my first book today, and it will arrive tomorrow — just in time to begin a daily practice that our class requires: reading one poem each day and spending time with it as a form of spiritual embodiment.
This feels like good news — like divine timing. Until now, Hafiz has always been my favorite. His poetry met me first, years ago, when I needed laughter in my healing — when joy itself became the medicine that allowed me to stay open through the ache. His voice is playful, radiant, and full of divine mischief, reminding us that God is not only a teacher but also a lover and friend.
Now, stepping into Rumi feels like entering another room of the same great house. If Hafiz taught me to dance with God, Rumi invites me to rest in Him — to breathe, to ache, to listen. I can already sense how his words will breathe into my mornings, each poem a mirror, a breath, a call to stillness.
Poetry has always been part of my soul’s language, and today, as I wrote two new poems that felt alive, I remembered the poet that I am. It feels good to feel her again — the woman who listens, feels, and translates life into rhythm and light.
💚 “You Have to Keep Breaking Your Heart Until It Opens”
When I first began processing my book — Internal Narcissus — I was living and growing out loud on Internal Narcissus Radio. One day, a meme drifted across my Facebook feed that stopped me in my tracks. It said, “You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” It was attributed to Rumi.
At the time, I was a baby on this path, but I knew instantly — this is exactly what I’m doing. I was breaking my heart open.
I remember the details like it was yesterday: I had green nail polish on, the color of the heart chakra. The microphone wire was green too, as if my entire being had dressed in the frequency of love. I was working with the heart in every sense — through my voice, my healing, and my art.
Later, I learned that the quote may not be a direct translation from Rumi’s original works, but rather a paraphrase or interpretation inspired by his teachings. Still, it rings true to the spirit of his message. For Rumi, love is the wound and the salve, the fall and the rising, the break and the opening. Whether the words were his or inspired by him, the meaning remains the same: to live fully, we must allow the heart to break open — again and again — until love flows freely.
❤️ The Embodied Path Forward
This is where I find myself now — no longer afraid of the breaking, but grateful for what it reveals. Each loss, each poem, each class reading is an invitation to inhabit love more deeply.
Rumi once wrote, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” I believe that light never truly leaves. It simply finds new openings — new hearts willing to hold it, to live it, to write it into being.
As I continue through this quarter, I will carry my matriarch in my heart, my poetry as prayer, and Rumi as companion. The body is the temple, the heart is the altar, and love — always — is the offering.
Written by Kellie J. Wright for Embodied Spirituality, Sofia University — Autumn 2025.
With grace and presence,
Kellie J. Wright
Transformation Guide | Author | Speaker
Creator of Internal Journeys™ Internal Narcissus™ Internal Narcissa™
Host of the From Light to Christ™ Podcast
“Truth and beauty are only a flip of the switch away.”
www.kelliejwright.com
Want to go deeper in your own journey?
Internal Narcissus: From Darkness to Light (Workbook)