A small green island where one white cow lives alone,

a meadow of an island.

The cow grazes till nightfall, full and fat,

but during the night she panics

and grows thin as a single hair. “What shall I eat

tomorrow? There’s nothing left!”

By dawn, the grass has grown up again, waist-high.

The cow starts eating and by dark the meadow is clipped short.

She’s full of strength and energy, but she panics

in the dark as before, and grows abnormally thin overnight.

The cow does this over and over, and this is all she does.

She never thinks, “This meadow has never failed

to grow back. Why should I be afraid every night that it won’t?”

The cow is the soul. The island field is this world where

that grows lean with fear and fat with blessing.

Lean or fat.

White cow, don’t make yourself miserable

with what is to come, or not to come.

Rumi