. . . of Joy and Sorrow . . .
 
	Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
	And the selfsame well from which your
laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
	And how else can it be?
	The deeper that sorrow carves into your
being, the more joy you can contain.
				. . .
	When you are joyous, look deep into
your heart and you shall find it is only that
which has given you sorrow that is giving
you joy.
	When you are sorrowful look again in
your heart, and you shall see that in truth
you are weeping for that which has been 
your delight.			
 
	Some of you say, "Joy is greater than
sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
	But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
	Together they come, and when one sits
alone with you at your board, remember
that the other is asleep upon your bed.
 
	Verily you are suspended like scales 
between your sorrow and your joy.
	Only when you are empty are you at
standstill and balanced.
	When the treasure-keeper lifts you to
weigh his gold and his silver, needs must
your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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	. . . of Houses. . .
 
	Build of your imaginings a bower in the 
wilderness ere you build a house within the
city walls.
				. . . 
	Your house is your larger body.
				. . .				
	And tell me . . . what have you in these
houses?  And what is it you guard with fastened
doors?
	Have you peace, the quiet urge that
reveals your power?
	Have you remembrances, the glimmering
arches that span the summits of the mind?
	Have you beauty, that leads the heart
from things fashioned of wood and stone to 
the holy mountain?
	. . .
	Or have you only comfort, and the lust
for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters
the house a guest, and then becomes a host,
and then a master?
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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	. . . of Reason and Passion . . .
 
	Your reason and your passion are the rudder
and the sails of your seafaring soul.
	If either your sails or your rudder be
broken, you can but toss and drift, or else
be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
	For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining;
and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its
own destruction.
	Therefore let your soul exalt your reason 
to the height of passion, that it may sing.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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Of Pain

My 3 weeks in Hoag Hospital for my stem cell transplant felt a lot like sitting in this chair the whole time.

Cancer Survivor

After the stem cell transplant, my first day out of the hospital in 3 weeks

	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.                    [...ectomy]
	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 tranquility:
	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.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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Go to Breast Cancer and Stem Cell Transplant Journal
 
 

Of Self-Knowledge

 
	Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days
and the nights.
	But your ears thirst for the sound of
your heart's knowledge.
	You would know in words that which
you have always known in thought.
	You would touch with your fingers the
naked body of your dreams.
			. . .
	And it is well you should.
	The hidden well-spring of your soul must
needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
	And the treasure of your infinite depths
would be revealed to your eyes.
	But let there be no scales to weigh your
unknown treasure;
	And seek not the depths of your knowledge
with staff or sounding line.
	For self is a sea boundless and measureless.
				. . .
	Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, 
"I have found a truth."
	Say not, "I have found the path of the soul."
Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon
my path."
	For the soul walks upon all paths.
	The soul walks not upon a line, neither
does it grow like a reed.
	The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of
countless petals.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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			. . .
		Of Teaching
 
	No man can reveal to you aught but that which
already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
	The teacher who walks in the shadow of
the temple, among his followers, gives not
of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
	If he is indeed wise he does not bid you
enter the house of his wisdom, but rather
leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
			. . . 
	For the vision of one man lends not its wings
to another man.
	And even as each one of you stands alone
in God's knowledge, so must each one of you
be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding
of the earth.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)  
 
"Teaching" by Denna Rae
 
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			. . .
 
			Of Friendship
 
	Your friend is your needs answered.
	He is your field which you sow with love
and reap with thanksgiving.
	And he is your board and your fireside.
	For you come to him with your hunger,
and you seek him for peace.
	When your friend speaks his mind you
fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor
do you withhold the "ay."
	And when he is silent your heart ceases
not to listen to his heart;
	For without words, in friendship, all 
thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born
and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
	When you part from your friend, you 
grieve not;
	For that which you love most in him may
be clearer in his absence, as the mountain
to the climber is clearer from the plain.
	
	And let there be no purpose in friendship
save the deepening of the spirit.
	For love that seeks aught but the disclosure
of its own mystery is not love but
a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable 
is caught.
 
	And let your best be for your friend.
	If he must know the ebb of your tide,
let him know its flood also.
	For what is your friend that you should
seek him with hours to kill?
	Seek him always with hours to live.
	For it is his to fill your need, but not
your emptiness.
	And in the sweetness of friendship let
there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
	For in the dew of little things the heart
finds its morning and is refreshed.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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			. . .
 
		Of Good and Evil
 
	Of the good in you I can speak, but not
of the evil.
	For what is evil but good tortured by its
own hunger and thirst?
	Verily when good is hungry, it seeks food
even in dark caves, and when it thirsts, it drinks
even of dead waters.
 
	You are good when you are one with
yourself.
	Yet when you are not one with yourself,
you are not evil.
			. . . 
	You are good when you strive to give of 
yourself.
	Yet you are not evil when you seek gain
for yourself.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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			. . .
 
		Of Prayer
 
	For what is prayer but the expansion of
yourself into the living ether?
(by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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			. . .
 
		Of Death

	You would know the secret of death.
	But how shall you find it unless you
seek it in the heart of life?
			. . .
	If you would indeed behold the spirit of
death, open your heart wide unto the body
of life.
	For life and death are one, even as the
river and the sea are one.
 
	In the depth of your hopes and desires
lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
	And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow
your heart dreams of spring.
	Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden
the gate to eternity.
			. . . 
	For what is it to die but to stand naked
in the wind and to melt into the sun?
	And what is it to die but to cease breathing but to
free the breath from its restless tides, that
it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
 
	Only when you drink from the river of
silence shall you indeed sing.
	And when you have reached the mountain
top, then you shall begin to climb.
	And when the earth shall claim your limbs,
then shall you truly dance.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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