The following is an excerpt from my new novella, Quietude, available on Amazon January 9, 2024 ⚛︎ “As you start along the way, the way appears.” The cover was torn—the edges were tattered.  Everyone wondered what was so precious inside Rumi’s Little Red Book.  Those who took notice of her would watch her deliberately jotting notes on the blank pages within, completely absorbed in her own thoughts.  No one thought to ask her about it.  Instead, people told stories about the book—none of which were true. The book was given to her as a gift, the occasion unrecorded by history.  […]

⚛︎ “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.   Unfold your own myth.” When she was a young girl, Rumi never quite fit in.  She tried, until she didn’t.  Something inherently hidden deep inside of her knew that she was never supposed to be fully accepted.  She walked with a limp which never endeared her to other children.  The limp’s origins, at first mysterious, manifested after she was bitten by a dog.  A virus seeped into her joints and the limp followed.  Although the clinical term for her ailment was septic arthritis, the village where she