'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran

This is a book that I came across about a year ago and some of the wisdom shared in it has stayed with me so i wanted to share it. To give a quick summary it about a man who spent 12 years waiting in a city for his ship to return and he can leave. But once his ship has come in he is overjoyed but quickly becomes sad when he thinks of all the people he must leave behind. As he approaches the ship the towns people approach him and asks him to stay. Then they begin to ask him to share his wisdom on subjects like love, work, marriage, eating, joy and sorrow, children, cloths,laws, giving, teaching, talking, time, reason and passion, prayer, religion,freedom, death and about 10 other subjects that is a part of daily life. I would love to re-type the whole book because it is so poetically and beautifully written and simultaneously shares so much knowledge. But I will just share a few exerts that i liked and hopefully it will intrigue you to check the book out.
Since our food is so important and there is more chemicals and loveless energies intertwined with what we eat in this present day I found a lot of importance in what he says on the subject. It says; "When you kill a beast say to him in your heart, 'By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivered you into my hands shall deliver me into a mightier hand. Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven. And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart, 'Your seeds shall live in my body, and the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, and your fragrance shall be my breath, and together we shall rejoice through all the seasons'." I particularly like this because it encourages sharing gratitude and love with your food and in return the food gives the same to your body. May people may remember in the movie Avatar when he kills the beast with a quick and painless stab and thanks the animal for his life and sends his love to it's departing spirit. This is not a new concept I think all or most previous cultures where people lived completely off of the land showed. This kind of gratitude to all living things that gives their life to a human to in order for the human to continue to grow may have been tied to every kill and meal. We should worship our food but that is difficult to do when you have no idea where your food came from or whats in it for that matter. But its not the apple's fault that it may have been genetically modified so thank your food for living it's life in order for you to continue to live.

There have been and may always be relationship problems, we all have them and there is really nothing wrong with that. I think one of the main factors behind many of those problems is the desire to control the other person instead of allowing them to be who they are, (isn't that why you got in a relationship in the 1st place because of who the person is?). So when he is asked about marriage he says; "You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, 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, even as the strings of a lute are alone through they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grows not in each other's shadow." From this I personally do not see him encouraging cheating on each other but but to allow each other to grow, together and on their own. Many times conflict starts because of "smothering" one another and they just desire "some space." This is exactly what he talks about. When you are with a loved one all the time you may fall into a cycle of not appreciating the other person. But now think of how happy you are to see your boyfriend or girlfriend after being apart for a week or two. That rejoining with each other is all the more special because of the time you spent apart.

These are just two examples of what is talked about in this book. I hope this is helpful and my main objective is to get the "word out" about this nice book. Once again is called The Prophet. I hope you enjoyed this and I may write future blogs to share some further knowledge on some of the other subjects. One love.