Discourses of Rumi

70 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIthe owner makes promises, saying, “The bread isnot yet baked. Wait patiently until the bread isproperly cooked and baked.”My greater desire is to see my friends, to gazemy fill upon them and they on me. For whenfriends see deeply into one another here, below,and they are raised into the other world afterbecome very familiar here, they quickly recognizeone another there. Knowing how closely theywere together in the world of mortality, theirreuniting brings great joy.For all too quickly we lose our friends. Do younot see how in this mortal world you become thefriend and darling of some person, and theybecome the very Joseph of beauty in your eyes.Then, on account of a single shameful act theyvanish from your sight, and you lose them completely?That Joseph-like form is changed into awolf. This very same one you once saw as Josephyou now see as a wolf. Yet, their actual form hasnot changed, but is still the same as it always was.By that one accidental act you lost them.Tomorrow, when this present essence is changed