{"id":985,"date":"2008-09-15T12:15:45","date_gmt":"2008-09-15T16:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/solbeam.com\/?p=985"},"modified":"2008-09-15T12:15:45","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T16:15:45","slug":"song-of-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seekingsol.com\/song-of-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"song of praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(I just returned from attending a full-weekend wedding. This morning, I dive back back into my archives, but thought I’d post my reading in the ceremony, as Love is, after all, the most foreign, enticing, challenging and exciting of all the countries I have travelled.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m really honored to be here today. To be a witness of one of the most beautiful and sacred days in the life of this couple. And to share, just a few words, of blessing, upon their union.<\/p>\n

I think everyone in this audience will nod with me in agreement when I identify these two people as remarkably strong and independent individuals, each of whom constantly recognizes, supports and respects the other in their partnership, not as “the other half,” but as the other, “whole.”<\/p>\n

This is a relationship that is grounded; grounded in the earth of respect and compromise. Tilled by sacrifice, flexibility, exchange and experience. Watered by the tears of loss, labor and joy. And rooted in family, community, and especially, one particular and beautiful little boy.<\/p>\n

This is a couple that is not ignorant of the challenges and pains inherent to the path of shared growth, but braver for the fact that they are both aware and consciously accepting of the responsibilities and rewards of facing life, from this day forward, together.<\/p>\n

And so it is with these strengths of this couple in mind, that I find it most fitting to share the wisest advices on marriage and love I have yet found, from the favorite poet, Kahlil Gibran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On marriage, he says,<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\nYou were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
\nYou shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
\nYou shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
\nBut let there be spaces in your togetherness,
\nAnd let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
\nLove one another, but make NOT a bond of love:
\nLet it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
\nFill each other’s cup but drink NOT from one cup.
\nGive one another of your bread but eat NOT from the same loaf
\nSing 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.
\nGive your hearts, but NOT into each other’s keeping.
\nFor only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
\nAnd stand together — yet NOT TOO NEAR together:
\nFor the pillars of the temple stand apart,
\nAnd the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
\n
\nAnd on Love he says, <\/strong><\/p>\n

When love beckons to you, follow him,
\nThough his ways are hard and steep.
\nThough his voice may shatter your dreams
\nas the north wind lays waste the garden.<\/p>\n

For even as love crowns you — so shall he crucify you.
\nEven as he is for your growth — so is he for your pruning.
\nEven as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
\nSo shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
\nAll 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.
\nBut if IN your fear 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 seasonless world where you shall laugh — but not all of your laughter. And weep –but not all of your tears.
\nLove gives naught BUT ITSELF and takes naught BUT FROM itself.
\nLove possesses NOT nor would it be possessed;
\nFor love is sufficient unto love.
\nLove has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
\nBut if you love, let these be your desires:
\nTo melt and be like a running brook — that sings its melody to the night.
\nTo know the pain of too much tenderness.
\nTo be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
\nTo wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
\nTo rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
\nTo return home at eventide with gratitude;
\nAnd then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.<\/p>\n

Kahlil Gibran<\/a> (born Gibran Kahlil Gibran bin Mikhael bin Sa\u00e2d; Arabic \u062c\u0628\u0631\u0627\u0646 \u062e\u0644\u064a\u0644 \u062c\u0628\u0631\u0627\u0646 \u0628\u0646 \u0645\u064a\u062e\u0627\u0626\u064a\u0644 \u0628\u0646 \u0633\u0639\u062f), (born January 6, 1883 in Bsharri, modern day Lebanon, which was part of Ottoman controlled Syria at the time; died April 10, 1931 in New York City, United States) was a Lebanese-American artist, poet, writer, philosopher and theologian. He is the third-bestselling poet in history after William Shakespeare and Laozi. – Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(I just returned from attending a full-weekend wedding. This morning, I dive back back into my archives, but thought I’d post my reading in the ceremony, as Love is, after all, the most foreign, enticing,… <\/p>\n

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