Al~`Ali, Green Mountain

The introduction of The Sufi Book of Life suggests that the reader not go in order through the ninety nine names, but rather flip through the book, or even open randomly, and "if something strikes you, stick with it." This morning I found myself at:

Name 36: Al~`Ali. Experiencing Life at Its Peak

This "L" is a deep consonant that brings you to the back of your throat sending the sound back to the physical body, not the kind of "L" that floats out into the air in front of us, as in the words "light" and "laughter." It captures the quality of being at the peak of everything, but in a way that leaves space for our own constructed notions of the self to disappear. Perhaps we are experiencing a "peak moment" through the grace of God--a moment that we can simply experience in its Divine fullness without analyzing or imposing concepts upon it. Douglas-Klotz reminds us to see these moments as a reflection of God in us; these experiences do not belong to us, but rather are a loan from the Divine, to remind us that there is more work to be done.

Ya-Ali. I could not stop saying this word, once I began this morning. It filled me with such a grounding peace; with permission to live at the peak of this joy that fills my life; with a call to view this moment, with gratitude, as a loan from God.

Time to try a fiddle tune. A new fiddle friend just emailed me three volumes of Irish music. The first volume alone, which supposedly only includes the most common of tunes, contains about 120. So the Irish zeal for writing tunes has outdone the Sufi passion for naming God. (Although the book has about the 99 names, it does assert that there are infinite qualities of the Divine.... It's still entirely possible that the Irish tunes win out, I'm not sure.)

So, feeling at the peak of life, I scrolled through the first volume of Irish tunes and decided to try a tricky little reel: "Green Mountain."