random choices

I do a lot of quick re-reading of passages in different books. Cloudy days and the slow windup at the start of an academic quarter, push me towards a great deal more of this. Generally it is done by what I call 'the book choosing me', but which I know is my unconscious choosing a book ---- perhaps in synchronicity, serendipity or perhaps in entirely random ways.

Today's choice was a tiny book of selections from Kahlil Gibran which opened to the essay "My Soul Preached to Me". So many different places of significance to me, but I will start with the beginning...

My soul preached to me and taught me to love that which the people abhor and befriend him whom they revile.

My soul showed me that Love prides itself not only in the one who loves, but also in the beloved.

Ere my soul preached to me, Love was in my heart as a tiny thread fastened between two pegs.

But now Love has become a halo whose beginning is its end and whose end is its beginning. It surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

I think I understand.. and that understanding grows with age.... but sometimes I still want it to be "a tiny thread fastened between two pegs". Selfish, eh?

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