
On Love
When love beckons to you, follow it.
Though its ways are hard and steep.
And when its wings enfold you yield to it.
Though the sword hidden among love's pinions may injure you.
And when love speaks to you believe in it,
Though its voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall it crucify you. Even as it is for your growth so is it for your pruning.
Even as love ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall love descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn love gathers you unto itself.
Love threshes you to make you naked.
It sifts you to free you from your husks.
It grinds you to whiteness.
It kneads you until you are pliant;
And then Love assigns you to its sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
But if in your heart you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the season-less world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
Kahlil Gibran
Though its ways are hard and steep.
And when its wings enfold you yield to it.
Though the sword hidden among love's pinions may injure you.
And when love speaks to you believe in it,
Though its voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall it crucify you. Even as it is for your growth so is it for your pruning.
Even as love ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall love descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn love gathers you unto itself.
Love threshes you to make you naked.
It sifts you to free you from your husks.
It grinds you to whiteness.
It kneads you until you are pliant;
And then Love assigns you to its sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
But if in your heart you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the season-less world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
Kahlil Gibran