As a girl, I was given “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran and it touched my young soul very deeply.<\/p>\n
So much in my early life made little sense…….. and yet……. I was deeply blessed to have wonderful 'teachers' enter at just the right time.<\/p>\n
This book – was one of those 'teachers'.<\/p>\n
“And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
\n–Kahlil Gibran<\/p>\n
When love beckons to you, follow,<\/p>\n
Though loves ways are hard and steep.<\/p>\n
And when loves wings enfold you, yield,<\/p>\n
Though the sword hidden among loves pinions may wound you.<\/p>\n
And when love speaks to you, believe,<\/p>\n
Though love's voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.<\/p>\n
For even as love crowns you so shall love crucify you. Even as love is for your growth, so is love for your pruning.<\/p>\n
Even as love ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,<\/p>\n
So shall love descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.<\/p>\n
Like sheaves of corn love gathers you unto itself.<\/p>\n
Love threshes you to make you naked.<\/p>\n
Love sifts you to free you from your husks.<\/p>\n
Love grinds you to whiteness.<\/p>\n
Love kneads you until you are pliant;<\/p>\n
And then love assigns you to love's sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,<\/p>\n
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,<\/p>\n
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.<\/p>\n
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.<\/p>\n
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;<\/p>\n
For love is sufficient unto love.<\/p>\n
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, I am in the heart of God.”<\/p>\n
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.<\/strong><\/p>\n Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.<\/p>\n But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:<\/p>\n To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.<\/p>\n To know the pain of too much tenderness.<\/p>\n To be wounded by your own understanding of love;<\/p>\n And to bleed willingly and joyfully.<\/p>\n To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;<\/p>\n To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;<\/p>\n To return home at eventide with gratitude;<\/p>\n And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a girl, I was given “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran and it touched my young soul very deeply. So much in my early life made little sense…….. and yet……. I was deeply blessed to have wonderful 'teachers' enter at …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shawnna.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}