Votre raison et votre passion sont le gouvernail et les voiles de votre âme qui navigue de port en port. Si votre gouvernail ou vos voiles se brisent vous ne pouvez qu’être ballotté et aller à la dérive ou rester ancré au milieu de la mer. Car la raison régnant seule est une force qui brise tout élan. Et la passion livrée à elle-même est une flamme qui se consume jusqu’à sa propre extinction.

Citation de Kahlil Gibran

“i thank god for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees & for the blue dreams of sky & for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” — e.e. cummings

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough” — Oprah Winfrey

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” — Woody Allen

“I do not think we have a “right” to happiness. If happiness happens, say thanks.” — Marlene Dietrich

Jax

“Purring is not so different from praying. To a tree, a cat’s purr is one of the purest of all prayers, for in it lies a whole mixture of gratitude and longing, the twin ingredients of every prayer.”  — Kathi Appelt (The Underneath)

“I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. “ — Walt Whitman

“When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.” — Maya Angelou

“Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” — Dalai Lama XIV

“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” — Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. “ — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” — Kahlil Gibrán (The Prophet)

GiGi

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust

“Be present in all things and thankful for all things” — Maya Angelou

“Fell in love with a beautiful blonde once. Drove me to drink. And I never had the decency to thank her. ” — W.C. Fields

“True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.’” — Oprah Winfrey

“Gratitude is a ‘heart’ memory” — French Proverb

“He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.” — Gabriel García Márquez (Love in the Time of Cholera)

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” — Albert Schweitzer

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ” — John F. Kennedy

“I tell you this, my friends, in the experience of my life time, the failure and the pain have certainly outstripped the triumphs. But this has not destroyed my faith — my faith in reason, in truth, in human solidarity — but, on the contrary, it has made it indestructible. I see the hope of the world in you. And, from my heart, I thank you.” — Frida Kahlo

“Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.” — Garrison Keillor

Happy Thanksgiving!

“Wake at dawn with a winged heart

and give thanks for another day of loving.” 

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

- Kahlil Gibran

‘Tis the season to sit at a table and offer prayers of Thanksgiving. What if your holiday feast doesn’t resemble a Norman Rockwell painting? Maybe you have a loved one fighting in a war or the economy has hit your household with a job loss. You could be walking through some of the biggest challenges ever faced. The power of grace comes in being able to offer prayers of thanksgiving even in the midst of distress. When I feel that my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, never reaching the ear of God, I stop and reflect on the last time I really offered a prayer of gratitude. God is used to hearing from me when things are hard; but rarely do those moments of distress include gratitude. I want the problem fixed and I can’t see pass my pain to ever see the blessing in the crisis. I ask for what I want. But the true strength of a soul is gracefully thanking Him for the experiences I am having even if they are stressful.

Some may pray only when things are hard. We may find God in only in our distress. Talk with Him in prayer while in your abundance. Kahlil Gibran said, “You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” So at this time of year, when society doesn’t seem as uncomfortable with the talk of prayer and God, take time to say “thank you when things are hard”. Gratitude is one of the highest states of emotion and it can quickly change our attitude. Express thanksgiving when all seems well in your world. “The expression of gratitude for blessings received keeps alive the awareness of who I am and where I came from.” For Today ~ OA Give yourself a gift – teach yourself to appreciate everything. Even those not so pretty parts of life.

5 Statements to Help Start Your Gratitude List

1. I am grateful for my freedom.

2. I am grateful for my ability to choose how I respond to my life.

3. I am grateful for my family.

4. I am grateful that God is watching out for me.

5. I am grateful for all I have learned this year.

Nama Kahlil Gibran adalah nama penulis asing yang sangat dikenal pada pertengahahan tahun 80an, hampir setengah abad setelah ia wafat pada tahun 1931. Kalau kita membaca karya-karya Gibran, kadang akan membuat orang bertanya-tanya tentang agamanya. Islam atau Kristen ya?
Kalau dari namanya sih berbau islami. Tapi dalam karyanya, tidak jarang saya temukan kata “pendeta”. Dan di sisi lain, unsur islamnya juga ada.

Nah, berikut ini saya ingin menulis tentang beberapa anomali dari si Gibran tentunya dalam dunia kesusastraan. Saya ambil dari skripsi seorang sarjana bahasa inggris UPI. Saya mencoba meringkasnya.

ANOMALI 1:
Gibran adalah seorang Arab yang Kristen. keluarganya penganut Kristen Maronit

ANOMALI 2:
Seorang Kristen yang dikagumi di Negeri Muslim

ANOMALI 3:
Seorang dari negara Timur yang berpengaruh kepada kesusastraan Barat.
Salah satu implikasi kesuksesan karya Gibran adalah banyaknya jumlah karyanya yang diterjemahkan ke dalam banyak bahasa termasuk bahasa-bahasa Barat.
Kalimat “Ask no what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” sering dikutip sebagai ungkapan Kennedy, padahal ditulis pertama kali oleh Gibran.

ANOMALI 4:
Seorang sastrawan Kristen yang banyak diinspirasi bahasa Al-Quran.
Kalimat “You have your Lebanon and I have my Lebanon”, kalimat ini jelas sangat mirip dengan ayat Al-quran yang diakuinya sendiri sebagai salah satu sumber ilhamnya, yakni ayat Quran “Bagi kalian agama kalian dan bagiku agamaku” (QS Al Kafirun ayat 6)
Contoh lainnya, kalimat dalam buku POTRET DIRI, “Dari Tuhan kita datang dan kepada-Nya lah kita akan kembali”. Makna kata ini mungkin agak kabur karena diterjemahkan dari versi Inggrisnya, padahal teks asli dalam bahasa ayat Quran adalah yang sering dikutip ketika mendapat musibah “Innalillahi wa inna Ilaihi raji’un”.
Menurut seorang sastrawan Muslim Indonesia, yakni Hamka “Bukan saja perpustakaan Arab itu dikuasai oleh orang beragama Islam, sehingga jangan heran jika di antara orang Kristiani yang hafal Quran karena banyak yang mengakui bahwa Al quran adalah puncak keindahan bahasa Arab.

ANOMALI 5:
Seorang sastrawan Kristen yang sufistik.
Kualitas tulisan-tulisannya yang penuh hikmah Islami ternyata bisa keluar dari diri seorang Kristen Maronit.

Pada hakikatnya karya Gibran adalah ajaran Islam yang sekedar disarikan kembali oleh Gibran dalam sastra populer tanpa dikaji oleh pikirannya demi membuahkan hidayah bagi dirinya. Maka ia pun mati dalam kekafiran walau karya-karyanya sungguh islami

“…pabila cinta memanggilmu… ikutilah dia walau jalannya berliku-liku… Dan, pabila sayapnya merangkummu… pasrahlah serta menyerah, walau pedang tersembunyi di sela sayap itu melukaimu…” (Kahlil Gibran)

“Tubuh mempunyai keinginan yang tidak kita ketahui. Mereka dipisahkan karena alasan duniawi dan dipisahkan di ujung bumi. Namun jiwa tetap ada di tangan cinta… terus hidup… sampai kematian datang dan menyeret mereka kepada Tuhan…” (Kahlil Gibran)

“Jangan menangis, Kekasihku… Janganlah menangis dan berbahagialah, karena kita diikat bersama dalam cinta. Hanya dengan cinta yang indah… kita dapat bertahan terhadap derita kemiskinan, pahitnya kesedihan, dan duka perpisahan” (Kahlil Gibran)

“Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana… seperti kata yang tak sempat diucapkan kayu kepada api yang menjadikannya abu… Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana… seperti isyarat yang tak sempat dikirimkan awan kepada hujan yang menjadikannya tiada…” (Kahlil Gibran)

“Jika cinta tidak dapat mengembalikan engkau kepadaku dalam kehidupan ini… pastilah cinta akan menyatukan kita dalam kehidupan yang akan datang” (Kahlil Gibran)

“Apa yang telah kucintai laksana seorang anak kini tak henti-hentinya aku mencintai… Dan, apa yang kucintai kini… akan kucintai sampai akhir hidupku, karena cinta ialah semua yang dapat kucapai… dan tak ada yang akan mencabut diriku dari padanya” (Kahlil Gibran)

“Kemarin aku sendirian di dunia ini, kekasih; dan kesendirianku… sebengis kematian… Kemarin diriku adalah sepatah kata yang tak bersuara…, di dalam pikiran malam. Hari ini… aku menjelma menjadi sebuah nyanyian menyenangkan di atas lidah hari. Dan, ini berlangsung dalam semenit dari sang waktu yang melahirkan sekilasan pandang, sepatah kata, sebuah desakan dan… sekecup ciuman” (Kahlil Gibran)

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

Kahlil Gibran

“Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed. “

–Kahlil Gibran

(c) 2009, Christiana Lambert

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
Kahlil Gibran

What parents don’t project themselves on their children? Their values, dreams, goals. But at some point many parents realize they aren’t “us” and that we must let them be who they were destined to be. Or not.

As hard as I have tried to do that, I still have fallen short.

Sometimes we simply have a mismatch in our families between what makes us happy. Jackson loves to play long, complicated, competitive games, something that is very difficult for me to do—I know I have not played enough with him, but have tried to convey he is OK for liking to do so. The problem is mine, not his.

Earlier this year Christiana thought her father was saying she wasn’t good enough to be an artist. What he was trying to convey was that she needed to enter the field with her eyes wide open, being prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to make a living in such a difficult profession. After she gained some distance, she could see that in addition to working on her craft, she did need to look at viability issues. She’s begun studying business subjects—to take care of her own art business—and believes that by studying at a four-year college, versus an art college, she can emerge better prepared to meet the non-art challenges of such a profession.

However, my heart breaks when I hear of parents who refuse to validate that children have a right—even an obligation—to pursue their own paths.

(c) 2009, Christiana Lambert

Undiagnosed ADD has not broken me in the ways many of these women have felt broken—but perhaps that’s because my family never treated me as if I were defective and let me know I could be who I was, even if we didn’t know ADD was part of that who.

As a society, many question the validity of how many more mental health conditions are treated in children these days. At least those of us in the group know that such treatment is necessary for many kids—and something that was sorely absent in prior generations. Still, there are those skeptics who refuse to see mental health conditions in their own families, despite fairly obvious signs. Such attitudes can be deadly, especially when combined with beliefs that parents can control who their children are.

Last night’s group was exceptionally large, with a few women in their 30s and 40s, but more in their 50s and 60s. Our usual custom allows us to tell our stories, moving around the table, in as orderly a fashion as you can expect from a group of women with ADD! As Linda states, many people with ADD have suffered the shame of being told they were talking out of turn (“I will not talk in Mr. So & So’s classroom”—oh yes, I’ve written that one over and over!) so she wants to make the group a safe place for being a little windy, if that’s what someone needs on particular night.

A beautiful, young woman patiently waited until her turn came at the end of the night, all the while making supportive suggestions to others. But soon after she began telling her story, validation from a sixty-something woman led her to burst into tears. At just twenty, she suffers from her family and friends’ refusal to see the bipolar symptoms. If only she could stop being so flaky and get down to the business of getting educated for taking over the family business.

If only she were supported for the artist she is and the help she needs for her condition. How is it strangers can see this, but those who love her cannot?

(c) 2009, Christiana Lambert

Do people like this ignore the lessons from movies like Dead Poets Society, where a son can be considered so rebellious for wanting to act in a play and study literature?

You may give them (children) your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.

Years ago I worked at a financial services firm with Rick, a business major who was envious of my “worthless” English degree, yet really wanted to pursue a master’s in literature. Once he asked me if my parents thought I had wasted a good education to work where we worked. I was stunned—my parents just wanted me to be happy. When his father called him at work, he became Richard and his voice took on a more business-like tone. Yet after I left the company, one morning he didn’t come in to work, seemingly due to a burgeoning drinking problem. That’s when they discovered he had been hiding unfinished work for weeks.

A year ago, just after Suicide Prevention Week at the kids’ school, a girl we knew tried to kill herself, but, thankfully, did not succeed. A multi-talented girl who earned good grades, she composed music, sang like an angel, and could design and sew clothes, as well as do so many other artistic things. But she wasn’t one of the top students like her cousin. Like the boy in Dead Poets Society, she too joined a drama production against her parents’ will. She didn’t expect them to attend, although they grudgingly let her continue. What I saw was a joyful, talented stage presence. Still, I guess she got tired of acting in her own home—and then set out to prove she was not who they wanted—by destroying herself. This formerly active honors student has left home and seemingly disappeared. It didn’t have to be. She was more than enough.

Perhaps having strong-willed kids from the beginning taught me early that control is an illusion. As much as I’d like a less complicated life with my kids, I am proud they do know who they are. I ask for their forgiveness for those times when I unintentionally made them feel they were not enough, just because they weren’t easy to parent or didn’t do things my way.

My own treatment for ADD has made it easier for me to be able to raise kids with ADD. Each family member in our home is difficult in his or her own way, but the more we understand our own biology and the condition, the more we are able to have tolerance for each other and make changes that allow us to live together with less stress.

It just makes my heart hurt that there are parents out there who don’t even believe their kids have the right to be themselves—and who will ignore biological mental health conditions just as easily as they ignore who their kids really are.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Not all bows bend in the archer’s hand quite the way Kahlil Gibran stated. Not all bows are stable. May that beautiful young woman find the support outside her family, even if the family cannot accept what she needs and who she is.

(c) Christiana Lambert, 2009

“Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.” ~Kahlil Gibran

When all of life is a temple and every moment is another sacred expression of the Divine Self, I give myself permission to hold nothing back…to bring and pour out the best of myself with great abandon.

There’s no need to reserve my passion or the finest of my talents for a more important day.

Hold this thought: “I am aware that I am a powerful creator of my experience.  I choose to treat each moment like another step on the grand stage of my life.  Today…NOW…is my time and I live in it fully without reserve.”

You may enjoy my quiet reading from Pronoia…

Ever heard it said that what you think of increases in your life? I first came across this poem while reading “The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge and it it was just so beautiful time literally stopped. Here it i:

Your Children are not Your Children

by Kahlil Gibran

Your Children are not Your Children

They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

All I can pray for is that I will have the strength to let my own children be, to learn from them and not ruin their lives by trying to force my own unfulfilled dreams on them. Sometines, while see a 3 year old girl with heavy make-up and some super-complicated hair (which is often beautiful) but I ask myself … “Does this little girl care about all this? or is it just the mother trying to make a statement?”.

This seems to contrast the Bible’s message to

“bring up a child in the path he should follow, and when he grows, he will not depart from it” .

Problem is, even when we are parents, some of us are still very lost, living lives devoid of some higher purpose, in pursuit of material wealth and all the other vanities that we use to define our existence, we really should not be giving a path to our children. BUT we can give them the gift of a few undeniable principles — the value of hard work, of humility, of service to others, of gratitude and integrity and if we do a good job of modelling those virtues ourselves, then we can let them use those principles to make their own paths and God won’t judge us for what paths they choose, for we would have done our part as the Bow.

I think I’ll go get myself a copy of “The Prophet”

“Apabila lukisan belum dapat memuaskan seorang pun hingga sekarang,itu dikarenakan kita belum mengenal seni lukis.Kelak akan datang suatu hari dimana orang-orang akan tahu nilai lukisan(picaso)”…….
Nah,lalu bgmana dg lukisan cintamu??
Dear…….
Supaya cinta menjadi matang dan sukses,engkau perlu memandang ulang potret cinta berdasarkan kaidah seni cinta yang shahih.Jangan engkau cemari potret cintamu dg coretan.cukup renungkan saja dg penuh kesabaran.LANGKAH PERTAMA yg harus engkau lakukan adalah tanyakan pada dirimu,cinta yg membayangi anda termasuk jenis Cinta yg mana?Apakah cinta ini membuat hati,akal,dan jiwa anda menjadi terkuras?sebab,cinta tidak hanya terdiri dari satu macam,tetapi bermacam-macam yang merupakan percampuran antara beberapa warna cinta.Tingkat kesahihan cinta tergantung pada sejauh mana keseimbangan antara warna-warna itu dan seberapa bagus komposisinya.
Berbuatlah sesuatu untk meringankan warna yg dominan dg cara memfokuskan pd warna yg samar hingga sampai ke tingkat yg serasi dan selaras dg perasaan.jgn engkau tmbahkan pd potretmu sesuatu yg bukan bagian darinya,dan menjadikan sesuatu tersebut bgian darinya.jgn pula engkau hapus dasarnya yg myebabkan engkau merasakan kehilangan bgian dari dirimu.Bagian ini akan membuangmu hingga engkau kosongkan untuknya suatu tempat diatas potretmu.Hormatilah keinginanmu sedari awal,tetapi berilah tempat yg smestinya saja.Hormatilah keberadaanya dan jangan dibiarkan kesewenang-wenangannya.
Kesabaran merupakan faktor yg sgt penting u berinteraksi dg potret cinta,melihat kpd ksamaran warna-warninya dan kehalusan strukturnya dan disinilah tersembunyi kekuatan cinta…..apa itu cinta?”Cinta adalah perasaan yg paling kuat karena susunanya teramat banyak”(spencer).
So……..
Taukah kau?
Apabila engkau terburu-buru untk mencpai hasil cinta yg instan,berarti engkau sama sekali tdk belajar seni cinta.
dan cinta adalah etalase yg lembaran-lembaranya sangatlah banyak.Engkau harus mempunyai lembaran yg hanya cocok dg dirimu.yakinlah bahwa tidak ada dan tidak akan pernah ada lembaran yg menyerupai lembaranmu.Maka,jika engkau blm merasa SREG dg jalanmu dlm mencari cinta……teruslah memilah dan memilih serta carilah warna-warninya yg sesuai.Ditanganmu terletak kanvas dan Cat.Akal adalah sarana sedangkan Hati adalah tempat pengambilan keputusan.
Mau tau ndak? cinta sejati bagaikan parfum yg langka,ia tetap meninggalkan bekas meskipun telah beberapa waktu berlalu”
Ok Dear………
Semoga goresan ini bisa mencerahkan……dan tak salah mengartikan CINTA

Sepenggal kata sayang:.. Yuk……..
LUKISLAH SURGA CINTA SEJATI DAN MASUKLAH KE DALAMNYA DENGAN AMAN!”…….

Regards……

“Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”

~Kahlil Gibran.

Cintamu mengalami mitosis yang tak kuduga
Akar cintamu telah berserabut menyentuh tanah cinta yang lain
Aku terluka karena amoeba cintamu
Pupus sudah harapanku
Laksana pohon-pohon cinta dimusim gugur
Bertebrangan tiada arah
Angin cintamu menghepas jantung
Dan………
Meluluhlantakan kalbuku
Sekarang…….
Baru kusadari
Ternyata parasit cintamu telah menjadi benalu dalam pohon cintaku yang membuatku layu
Tapi……….
Aku berusaha menguatkan pohon diriku yang telah tumbang
Dengan membangun kembali akar cinta yang rapuh
Oleh nutrisi keoptimisan menyongsong masa depan
Dan memupuk kembali Tanah cinta yang tandus dan gersang
Menjadi lahan subur yang siap kembali menumbuhkan pohon-pohon cinta yang baru
Dan
Kan kupetik buah cinta
Kutebarkan dengan Senyum indahku
Dan……..
Akupun kembali bahagia

rangkaian sederhana ini aku dedikasikan untuk semua yang didalam dadanya menggelayut keputusasaan,.semoga kesakitan,ujian akan menjadikanmu batu karang yang kuat nan kokoh dan tetap optimis dalam menjalani hidup
“Life Must Go On”

Dear Richard,

Do you remember the plaque I always had hanging on the wall?  The saying went something like … If you love something you let it go, and if it returns, it’s beautiful.  That is how I always felt … that someday you would come back to me and we would be happy.  I know now that my feelings for you were so much more than your feelings were for me.  The plaque is gone.  I can not look at it any longer.

I have mailed several letters in the past months and have never heard back from you.   I have to try to forget about you and to go on with my life.  Your friend was here last night.  He asked me about my feelings for you.  I was so surprised by his question.  And  it was at that moment that I realized that it would never work.  That if you had wanted to be with me again, that you would have answered at least one of my letters.

I wish you all the best that life can bring to you.

Always F

(This was originally posted 9/7/2007 at wotmania.com, which closed down at the end of August in 2009. [Most of the members can now be found at RAFO.] It has not been edited since that first posting. I’m putting it here because I want the copy out and visible. Narcissism and the internet: need I say more?)

I came across this poem today, for what must be the fifth time:

On Marraige

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

~ Kahlil Gibran

My parents owned a copy of The Prophet. They still do. I read it when I was 10. There are no words, truly, to describe the experience of recognising but not comprehending beauty. It wafts around you, and perhaps through you. You cry and you are happy but you cannot for the life of you say why.

I read it again when I was 12. And this time it was worse, because sometimes I felt like it got it. It was like… doing a geometrical problem for which I had the key, only I didn’t understand the key, just held it in my unfeeling fingers.

I couldn’t tell you today whether I am romantic or not. Shall I put it like this: I do not believe that there is a soul-mate out there, waiting for me, but I do believe that I might meet someone, and together we might become each other’s soul-mates? Yes, I believe I shall indeed put it like that. But back when I was 12, I hadn’t formulated this theory. I didn’t really understand what I meant by the word “love” and why I shifted it around so much. I did know that someday some nice man/woman would charge up in a big black car, hand me a copy of The Prophet and ask me to marry him/her.

It wasn’t always a big shiny car. Sometimes she’d climb down a tree, and sit down beside me, and read the verse out loud, and I would listen to her. Sometimes he’d stop by me as I sat on a stone bench in my school playground, and he’d place the book in my hand, and I’d read to him. Sometimes we would alternate verse for verse. Sometimes we quoted them.

But that was the deal. I would have a someone. And I would know that someone because they gave me The Prophet.

I have read the essaypoems since I was 12. They’re all over the internet, and sometimes I find them quoted or referenced in the books I read. I once read The Prophet from end to end online – right before I told someone I loved him, and he said he loved me back. (A month later he told me he couldn’t love anyone. But that’s not his fault, or Gibran’s fault, or mine.) And I couldn’t think what our future might be, I couldn’t figure out what adjustments we’d both have to make to each other, but one day I knew we would sit down in a small little pub playing very loud metal music, and I’d read The Prophet to him, and that would be me saying “I love you”, and him listening to me and knowing I was saying it.

And saying it back.

But, well, see, this man had not heard of Gibran – at least I do not know if he had. It’s not a question of his intelligence or readingness, you understand – I just was fairly sure he had not read Gibran because we’d never talked about poetry – not much, anyway. Perhaps we would have? (Does that matter?) And because he’d not read Gibran, he wouldn’t be able to buy The Prophet for me. Not unless I told him to, which is not the point of the fantasy.

And so I would have to buy it for him.

I made plans, you know. The buying of the copy. The giving. The speech – it was very long, and it was perfect; it was very short, and it was perfect; it wasn’t there at all, and it was perfect. And the reading. And the keeping. And.

Well. That one fell through, and I never even told him about Gibran. I was, and still am, a coward in these things. I want the people who love me to say that they love me, and to say it before I do so that it is not me that risks rejection but them. I want to not be the instigator of love because that way I am not the one who has made the demands. In my need to be ultra-perfect I can be ultra-passive. And when I fall short – as I cannot help, being simultaneously unstable and human – I try even harder to be the GooseGirl Princess. And if I am the Goosegirl hard enough, well enough, they shall give me The Prophet and that will prove that they love me.

I haven’t held and read a tangible copy of The Prophet since I was in my teens. I have never owned it. I have never received it as a gift. I may never receive it as a gift. Perfect romance exists, but it rarely plays to the storyteller in your head.

Unless, of course, your storyteller shifts her story. It’s the mark of a good storyteller, isn’t it? The the story is not so much unmarkable dross but instead the result of a caring, a commitment, a shaping – a sharing?

I don’t believe in the essentiality of a soulmate. I think I can live without one. I don’t think I can force the forging of that kind of bond. But maybe, maybe someday there will be one. And I would like to think that s/he and I will know it because one day I stretched out my hand and said, Do You Read Kahlil Gibran?

Yes or No, it won’t matter.