When love beckons to you, follow him
though his ways are hard and steep.

        For even as love crowns you, so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth, so is he for your pruning.

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.

      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 fulfil itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

   To melt and be like a running book that sings its melody into 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.

-- "Love", The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran