Reading as a path to finding peace within your pain..worth a try!
From: Bev Doucette (bnb@new.rr.com)
Fri Jul 20 14:59:54 2001
If a suffering person can find even a MOMENT of peace within their pain
and suffering, they have found a true blessing!
When I need comforting from the sorrows that surround my world at
times,I seek refuge in a most wonderful book written in the year 1923..
Like Lynda M. of Arizona, my favorite book of solace to me is
" The Prophet " by Kahlil Gibran.
This book, which can be purchased in different sizes from large to
pocket size is a celebrated statement about the truths of human
experience. I gave a copy of this book to those who traveled to germany
with me last year. A gift from my heart to them as I love this book.
Kahlil Gibran was born in Bsharri, Lebanon in 1883. He settled in New
york City in 1912 and devoted himself to writing and painting. He has a
mystical style of writing that has an awesome ability to sooth ones
soul, mind and heart...and during the days of my most horrific suffering
with ARD, I would pick up this book, and read some of his messages from
the past! Each and everytime I I did that, I found his words to have
full meaning in todays world...how can that be you might ask?
becuase he speaks of human emotions and experiences, and those facettes
of life on th do not change over time!
People suffered pain back then the same as we do today and will 100
years from now. The emotions of saddness, happines, love, hate, grief,
joy, fear, hope and greed remain the same today as it was felt 100 years
past and will be experienced 100 years to come!
Those of you who will be curious enough to search out the book " The
Prophet, " you might find that it may take a bit to truely understand
what his words speak of, but given a moment to meditate on them, you
will have given yourself a gift greater then money can buy! You will be
allowing yourself some much needed alone time, quiet time, personal time
which allows you to regroup your own thoughts and feelings in the midst
of a day surrounded by the sufferings ARD brings into our lives. You
will be giving yourself a respite from the daily activites life
surrounds us with. No matter how we suffer,life goes on around us likes
waves crashing on a shore! One after another, over and over at times it
feels like we might simply drown the activities of life itself..
To me, my book is like a comforting sea breeze that can take me away
from the waves of life if only for a moment, and when my soul and mind
are refreshed by the words of "The Prophet" etched in them , I am ready
to once again to brave the waves on the shores of life!
For a suffering person to be able to find a moment of peace within their
pain and suffering is a blessing to be sure, but when a suffering person
can find comfort, courage, wisdom AND peace from WITHIN themselves they
are never again dependent on seeking it from the world around them.
Whatever love and compassion they might reap from others will only be a
wonderful addition to what they already have within themselves. Once
you have learned the way to ffill your life with peace from within
yourself, you shall never be alone or without the wisdom to help
yourself get through your personal suffering!
My dear friends, if I may take this opportunity to touch your lives with
a reading from " The Prophet, " may this be a moment in which you will
be touched by my love and compassion for all of you from a sister who
has walked your path and prays so very much that one day you will walk
my path as I walk it today! If my Lord is willing, and my God, I hope
his is, may I be able to give each one of you one moment free from your
suffering today, from my heart to yours and if it happens, may you know
you have been touched by the true spirit of love :
The Prophet speaks to us of "Joy and Sorrow."
He say's:
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 that it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can
contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in a
potter's ooven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was
hollowed with knives?
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 then sorrow," and others say, " Nay,
sorrow is the greater. "
But I say unto you, they are inseperable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board,
remeber that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Varily you are suspended like scales between yopur 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 and fall.
I will close with these words from Kahlil Gibran as they so adaptly say
what is in my own heart:
" And if this day is not a fulfiment of your needs and my love, then let
it be a promise till another day. In the stillness of the night I have
walked in your streets, and my spirit has entered your houses, your
heartbeats were in MY heart and I knew you all."
We ARE all one with each other in what we suffer, we don't need to see a
face, know a name or even know who in this world IS suffering ARD as if
they are suffering it, they are one with us and our hearts beat the same
in that suffering and our prayers for ourselves are prayers for them as
well. We ARE all one...
Peace and friendship
Love Bev
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