One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the heart of true harmony.
~Haruki Murakami
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 though 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 grow not in each other’s shadow.
~Kahlil Gibron
To be fully seen by somebody, and then loved anyhow – that is a human offering that can border on miraculous.
~Elizabeth Gilbert
To say that one waits a lifetime for his soulmate to come around is a paradox. People eventually get sick of waiting, take a chance on someone, and by the art of commitment become soulmates, which takes a lifetime to perfect.
~Chris Jami
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
~Friedrich Nietzsche
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
~Lao Tzu
Love doesn’t make the world go ’round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
~Franklin P. Jones
We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
~Dr Seuss
The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well.
~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good, as far as it can be obtained.
~C.S. Lewis
Read more by Alethea at Ben’s Writing, Running Mom.