I have joined the many readers who are enjoying the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. On page 29 of her book she beings talking about wanting things that conflict with each other. She writes, "The great Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi once advised his students to write down the three things they wanted most in life. If any item on the list clashes with any other item, Rumi warned, you are destined for unhappiness. Better to live a life of single-pointed focus, he taugh." This small point really made me think. What this poet says makes perfect sense. There is no way to love one thing and love something else that goes completely against it. How can you strive for a goal as well as another that leads you further from the first thing you wanted. How can you know if everything you are striving for is what you should be striving for? Occassionally in life we find our wants and needs change...are there things in life that never change. Things that we want with our whole soul that never become any different? These questions all crossed my mind almost instantly as I finished reading these few short lines. How do we know? And once we think we know, how can we be sure that we are striving for the things that we should be?
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