Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you in part by Book of Zen, makers of wearable inspiration for a better world. Today’s podcast has been edited and adapted from the book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, published in 1922…

When love beckons to you, follow it—though its ways are hard and steep. And when its wings enfold you, yield to it—though its hidden sword may wound you. And when love speaks to you, believe in it—though its voice may shatter your dreams, as the winter wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you, so shall it crucify you. Even as it is for your growth, so it is also for your pruning. Even as love ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that shimmer in the sun, so shall it descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn, love gathers you unto itself. It threshes you to make you naked. It sifts you to free you from your husks. It grinds you to whiteness and kneads you until you are pliant. And then love casts you into its sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for a sacred feast.

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. But if in your fear, you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you to cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you still shall laugh, but not with all of your laughter, and still weep, but not with all of your tears.

Love gives nothing but itself and takes nothing but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed; for love is sufficient unto love.

When you love, you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.” And think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and MUST have desires, let your desires be these:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; and to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy. To return home at evening with gratitude; and then to sleep, with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

If love leads you to marriage, remember this: You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. 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—just as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music.

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