...let there be spaces in your togetherness...
...sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of the lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music.
...the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

-- "Marriage", The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran


The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
... [joy and sorrow] are inseparable. Together they come, and when when sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

-- "Joy and Sorrow", The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran


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;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix, rise above its own ashes.

-- "Reason and Passion", The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran


...accept the seasons of your heart...

-- "Pain", The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran