Reflecting on Kibran's words on Love

I have been hoping to understand Gibran's words on love for years and years.

          Each time I read this (below) I understand a bit more, maybe because I have more of life experience under   my   belt ,that I understand it at another level

Today in the sharpness of my grieving for my dad ,my mum my family as they once were. I experienced the sheer physical pain that love is.
The joy the laughter the good bits I know about, I forget the pain that goes with it.

Gibran captures it well in his lines.

I suppose this is why sometimes, some of us,  avoid giving ourselves  completely ,opening up our heart willingly,loving unconditionally,who can blame us?

pain is the opposite side of the coin of joy?

If I take stock ,it is the people I love most, the people who bring me great joy, that have the power to cause me great pain,wittingly or un-wittlingly.

Tis the price we pay for love-and in the end all that matters is that we loved.( I say this .is it true? in the end dad did, a hug was worth a million pounds he said ) I believe this. I do ;and it was amazing to hear dad getting to that place too.( once he said it was all about money)

When I look back it is the warmth of feelings that I remember or the cold heartless moments too,not the words not the conversations "the feelings"

Fond memories bring me sunshine, literally. I see yellow sunshine when I remember being a child safe and warm ,when I held my babies, when we were all young and happy, it was yellow sunshine.

Unhappy memories are grey and cold,or sometimes red if I still feel angry.

"Dad it is your birthday to-day and it is very hard for all of us. I have heard from all the siblings and we all feel strange not to be visiting Kintillo today ;it was such a big  event in our lives,your birthday and yours and mum's wedding anniversary. A focus of our year." " people say the first year is the worst,i sure hope so pa this has been so bad and I feel so empty inside."
Isa watched your Diamond Wedding and your 80th birthday DVD yesterday,she was very brave.I just can't not yet any way,I found a letter here in Castlenel from you,it was so painful to see your writing and read your cheery words." I love you dad"best dad in the world as I  always put on your cards" and one of the last things I said to you that night in the hospital the night of my birthday, almost the last time I saw you,we were both distraught pa."
Glad I saw you home in Kintillo surrounded by all your things and people who loved you the following day,such a wonderful surprise that you came home before I left.

I wanted to stay on with you, but you insisted that I got on that train, and go to the match with "andy"

Ok blog thanks for listening.Hope to be more cheerful tomorrow,but can't hurry feelings ,and it is a journey through grief that I am writing about. I am startled at the little side roads the journey  has taken me on.

Kahlil Gibran on Love

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

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

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's 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 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.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught 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 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 needs have desires, let these be your desires:
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 eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.