Been Too Long

Imagine, I have taken so long to blog, I almost forgot my id. Almost, but not quite. I wonder how the regular bloggers have the energy and time to blog. I enjoy writing definitely but when it has to be consistent, I guess I balk. There are a thousand of things that occupy my time -hmm some of the activities are ...watching television ...well, that's just it. Hee hee. I used to watch tons of TV in my previous miserable existence but now that I am in Singapore, my time is a little better spent. I haven't been watching any TV. Been online quite a bit though. Don't ask doing what. :-) Plus of course we have a new addition to the family - Rayn Eshan, first nephew, first grandchild and pampered prince. He is just perfect - ok ok most of the time. When he wants to play and stare at you with his gorgeous eyes - at 3 am in the morning, he doesn't seem that perfect. Grin. (Shh don't tell my sis that)

Last Thursday, my 1st sis and dad were supposed to play badminton. First my sister got me to replace her, then my dad got my last sister to replace him. It has been almost 2 years since I played so you can imagine, I was breathless very quickly. We did have a good match and it was wonderful to get back into some kind of activity. I have also been dreaming about going to my previous gym which has an outdoor/indoor pool.

http://www.fitnessfirst.com.sg/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=278&nav_cat_id=193&nav_top_id=78&view=&history=1&gback=home&dsa=1520

Hope that the link works so that you have visual. It is way cool and almost worth the $120 I used to pay.

Back to the badminton court. My youngest sister was about 15 minutes and when I entered the court at 8 pm, there were 4 people from the previous booking still playing. I politely told them, they can go ahead until my sister comes.

They finished playing a few seconds before my sister arrived. And casually the walked out of the court.

Sigh - yeah I did want them to leave the court, but did they say any words of appreciation that I didn't kick them out of the court? Nope. Just pretend that they owned the court anyway and walk right out. This is the ugly Singaporean attitude for you.

When I was in the U.S, I did look back and wish for the impeccable Singaporean transport system, the amazingly tantalizing food varieties in this food heaven. The one thing that I didn't miss was this - the Singaporean attitude. I guess I can't say that Singaporeans own this attitude or even that there aren't polite Singaporeans. What I am saying is that, it is a generally trend. That more often than not, one expects selfish and self centred behavior rather than gracious behaviour. Sure we are better at getting on lines when boarding the bus, (I was impressed by the queue at the Hong Kong while boarding, it was the best queue I had seen for the longest time - tee hee) However, this sort of order is borne out of fear rather than graciousness. There is a difference in whether one does it out of consideration, or one does it out of fear that someone was gonna slap a fine on them. That is when in situations where no one is going to write out a fine ticket for being ungrateful, (as in the incident in the badminton court) Singaporeans will exhibit a behaviour that is uncivilized. Of course, if you were an American in Singapore, you will have the red carpet rolled out for you. It is too strange.

One of the things my dad was really impressed was in the States was the level of service in every store that he stepped into. I have grown used to that level of warmth. It is rare indeed to come across a grumpy and boo-chap (can't be bothered) sorta service staff. It is just the opposite in Singapore. There have been times when I have walked out of a store because none of the service staff came forward to offer any assistance. I do not know if things will ever change and it is certainly not a campaign that we need. Campaigns are soul-less, one needs to go to the root cause and address the problem I think. Don't ask me why I am different though. :-)

This is my kitty. Her name is Wilma, but really she should have been named "Princess" :-)

People Have Eyes But Their Hearts are BLIND Part 2

People have eyes, but their hearts are blind. This saying keeps running through my mind. At the same time, I now think about proverbs and sayings that I had to learn during my Tamil lessons in school (The Ovvayaar Palamohigal, Aaathichudi, Thirukurral) when you compare the depth of the moral within each of these one liners, or in the case of the Thirukural, two liners (if interested to know more check http://www.cs.utk.edu/~siddhart/thirukkural/english.html), to that of English sayings, geez, you realize the nuances of the non English languages. Such delicacy and profundity in expression. Anyway, I digress.

This proverb on my title, is so complex in its simplicty. And the words "The Greatest Truths Are The Simplest" is etched in my memory because that was the only poster wall hanging that we had in our previous 3 room flat where we lived for 18 years. This Arabic saying is so apt in capturing my emotions and feelings at this point when I am writing this blog.

2 nights ago

It was such an amazing day of laughter and joy, sharing and larning, conversation and reflection. Finally I got to introduce D to C, and I know that I have made 2 lifelong friends in meeting these beautiful souls. Allah has really blessed me in the fact that I have been given the golden opportunity to meet such awesome, likeminded friends, kindred spirits even.

The evening strated with a moving and enlightening documentary - The Hidden Masaccre (see http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/1516227_ for transcripts. It is the gruesome truth on the unfair and baseless war waged by the US Government in Iraq. The bodies that were displayed diplayed signs of chemical poisoning, namely, the use of white phosporous (wp) against not only the Iraqi insurgents, but against civilians as well.The effect of white phosporous is the same as napalm which was used to the Vietnam War. IN 1980, the US signed an agreement (Gevena Convention) against the use of such chemicals that cause a particular kind of effect. Like the clothes are intact, but wp reacts with oxygen, air, skin, and literally melts the skin/body bodies to the bones. This brave documentary was filmed by The Italian Network RAI 24. The audience sniggered half in horror, half in the repeated stupidity of the US government when two Pentagon officials, within a week o each other, contradicted each other on whether wp was used as a chemical weapon. First Boylan said no such thing, next week another spokesman from the Pentagon admitted the the military has been using wp in the Iraqi War. This whole situation is a tragicomedy. The Bush administration, laughing and the victims, crying.
I don't know why I am so wound up by the injustices of the world. I guess it is because for me, it is completely inhumane. I am reminded of a Tamil proverb "Without wetness of heart" - ie a heart that is incapable of tears, that is cold and made of stone. I wonder how these people go to sleep at night. Doesn't their conscience princk them, like they are lying on a bed of nails? Ha - they are probably deaf and numb to their conscience.
All these things make me realize, there MUST be a God. Many people see all these atrocities that go on, and think "If there was a God, all this suffering, pain and brutality" wouldn't be happening. I cling on to the hope that because God exists, there is justice, if not in this world, then in the Hereafter.
Speaking of injustice, there was a lady at the documentary screening who shared with us on her fight against allowing army recruiters on school grounds. A mother had approached her and recounted how her 16 year old daughter kept being approached (or shall we say accosted) by the recruiter over several days. One fine day, he couldn't resist grabbing her by her elbow and told her "We need pretty gals like you in the Army". She told him to "Take your fucking hand off me". Strong language for sure. The recruiter went up to the Principal and what happened next just makes me feel so &^*^&%$*)(. The Principal suspended the girl for 3 days for the usage of foul language!
At the same time, I feel my faith in Americans is renewed. That there are people willing to fight against injustices. There is yet another group of people who stand at the intersections on Sundays displaying placards that are express anti-war sentiments. I think I should do something to change the world too. What exactly to do, I don't know. I had posted a reply to izzymo's blog and felt it summarizes my sentiments.

This is surprising, what you have chosen to blog about. Because after a few weeks of absence, I have just say down and drafted an entry into my blog, and some of the things that you brought up are connected to what I had to say. I too questioned what can be done and my mind has been circling around how I can effect change.

Essentially my entry was inspired by a documentary that I saw - The Hidden Massacre - by the Italian TV Network, RAI 24. I watched it 2 days ago, as part of the week long campaign - “No War Week”. It was held in a bookstore called “People Called Women” which is a feminist bookstore here in Toledo. Even though they screened the wrong movies (was supposed 2 be about women fasting for peace) it was such a revealing documentary. (Check Democracy Now for more details just in case you people didn’t know about this documentary on the Iraqi War and the US military use of white phosporous, declared illegal in the Geneva Convention.)
I have always made jokes about stupidity and American as being interchangeable (my apologies to all conscious and conscientious Americans). I still don’t understand how Bush got voted into power again. Who were these blind people? Or are we blinded by the politics. Was it even a fair election or did votes go missing again?
However, I must also concede that eventhough there are many Americans who are juvenile (like the white guy who stuck out his tongue at us from his car - my friend wears a Hijab, I wanted to flash him the pair of scissors that I just bought, but my friend advised against it. Kee kee) , there are also many Americans who are politically or socially conscious. We have influence one person at a time and the only way to do so is gain knowledge, knowledge is power and the Deen we practice, may it be the protective cloak that we don.
My next post in my blog is about “Crash” and because it has some connection, I shall quickly share it here. It is not Americans, Christians, African Americans, Muslims, etc that start these religious/racial tensions. It is the government. A nation divided, is easier to rule. It is easy enough to pit different communities against each other and then watch the drama unfold while they profit from the bloodbath. It is at times like this that I feel the presence of Allah the most, because these heartless, power hungry souless men and women, must get their just desserts. (I don’t like this saying, how can just desserts ever be a bad thing! but u know what I mean) Allah Hafiz

PEOPLE HAVE EYES BUT THEIR HEARTS ARE BLIND

This Arabic saying was in the email that D sent me on this Palestinian child, now a 27 year old woman, was blinded by the mindless actions of the Israeli Army. On second thought, I shall paste the article right here and blog my thoughts in the next blog.

Bigger than the Sea
Posted by Kevin Sites
on Fri, Feb 10 2006, 6:33 PM ET
Video Audio Photo Essay

A Palestinian woman lost her sight in the intifada, and gained what she never imagined
*Note: in keeping with our mission, the Hot Zone is putting a human face on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We're profiling doctors, victims of the violence, journalists and artists -- one from each side. In focusing more on the human picture than the political one, we aim to present a clearer portrayal of the scope of the conflict.
PALESTINIAN VICTIM
GAZA -- It was 1987, during the first Palestinian intifada. Palestinian boys were spray-painting anti-Israeli slogans on the walls near the home of the Al Hissi family in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza.
When the boys were confronted by Israeli Defense Forces they scrambled over the wall and hid with the Al Hissis. They gave the boys different clothing so they could try to get back to their homes without being recognized by the soldiers.
Someone said that the alley should be checked to make sure it was clear before the boys went back outside. Before anyone could stop her, seven-year-old Amani Al Hissi pushed open the gate and walked out into the alleyway.
There was, the family says, the distinctive thump of a tear gas grenade being fired. It struck Amani just over her left eyebrow.

"It was very, very painful," the now 27-year-old Amani says, "but then I passed out."
Her father, Kamil, gathered up the body of his little girl and rushed her to the local hospital.
"The doctors told me they couldn't do anything for her, that she needed to be taken to a special eye clinic in Jerusalem," he says.
Kamil says it took an entire day before he could convince the Israelis to let him pass through a roadblock to Jerusalem. When he finally reached the clinic the news was not good.
Amani had already lost the sight in her left eye because of retinal damage and hemorrhaging. The news got worse. The doctors said that eventually, because of the trauma, Amani could lose the sight in her other eye as well.
It took four years, but as the doctors predicted, by the age of eleven, Amani was completely blind.
"It was so difficult, I was miserable," she says at her parents' home where she lives just a few hundred meters from the Mediterranean shore. "But there was also something positive. It created the soul of challenge in me. My blindness helped me to focus on other things: politics, culture, literature. Amani, with eyes or not, is still alive. I only lost my sight for Palestine, not my life or my soul."
Amani used that drive to pursue her broad range of interests. She learned to read and write in braille and studied Arabic literature. She also plays the accordion and hosts several different programs on the Voice of Youth Radio station, including one that deals with creative writing.
"I've adapted to my blindness," Amani says, "but nothing can replace sight. The other things I've gained from this are only compensation, not replacement."
Amani says what she has gained through the loss of her sight is imagination. In fact, even when she speaks, sometimes it almost seems more like poetry than just sentences.
She says she sits on the beach sometimes and she can see everything in her mind.
"With every wave that hits the shore," she says, "my imagination becomes bigger and bigger. I see all the waves, all the sea, the horizon, all the sunset. My imagination is as limitless as the sea."
But her imagination has its limits. When she wants to teach her younger brother Kamal how to write his name, it takes her several attempts to discern, through touch, where the notebook cover ends and where the paper begins.

She laughs easily and often, making funny sarcastic remarks.
When I ask her to tell me about the day she was shot she quips, "don't remind me of that day, I love it so much."
But while she talks, she nervously and incessantly plays with bracelets or her hands -- an underlying restlessness of one who must now see with her fingers.
She has difficulty talking about her loss in personal terms. Rather, she frames thoughts -- like so many in the occupied territories do -- in the larger context of a Palestinian struggle.
"It's impossible to put my anger aside," she says, referring to the shooting. "We are the innocents here, all this could be avoided by ending the occupation. If we get rid of them (the Israelis) there will be no more victims."
On a bench in the courtyard of her house she feels through a sheaf of papers for a poem she has written. When she finds it her fingers move across the raised dots on the page.
"Give me my childhood," she reads, "don't leave me alone, don't shoot me in the head, I have a lot of sadness, I am a child in the age of flowers, they stepped on my head, I'm a child in the age of flowers, they have no mercy on me or my childhood, please brothers don't leave me alone."
Around her neck Amani wears a gold heart with the letter "R": the initial of her fiance's first name. He is an intelligence officer with the Palestinian Authority.
He sought her out at the radio station where she works, after listening to one of her programs. They will marry in the coming year.
Amani is confident she will have a full life, maybe fuller than most. Yes, it will be without sight, but it will also be filled with imagination, an imagination, as she says, "as limitless as the sea." It's big enough, it seems, to encompass both the past and present, both anger and hope.
"There's a saying we have in Arabic: some people have eyes but their hearts are blind," she says

Tavis Smiley Poll

(This was sitting on my draftbox from March 3)

Should employers be allowed to prohibit Muslim women from wearing the Malay-Islamic headscarf at work?

That was the poll that was on the Tavis Smiley website today. I was quite surprised, but then again, I have always enjoyed Tavis' show on PBS, midnight every weekday. He is rather succinct and direct and empowering to say the least. In the 20 minutes worth of interview, he has asked so many probing questions, in a manner that is least offensive. How many talk show hosts can boast that?

This poll is very interesting indeed. One, the hijab is said to be Malay-Islamic. Hijab is just Islamic - period. I wonder why it is called Malay too because being Malay is a race and although there are a lot of Malays are Muslims, it is the religion Islam that requires women to wear Hijab.

I am not really comfortable with the poll. It certainly reveals a mentality that is discriminatory. It almost pre-supposes that it is alright to ban the hijab from the work space. The U.S touts itself as a melting pot. It is so often used as a selling point. Why should the way a woman dresses herself be a point of consideration? I am just puzzled, that a woman is allowed to expose her boobs, wear skirts that reveal her thighs, and that sort of dressing is well and fine, why it is even encouraged and rewarded, whereas, when a woman wants to protect herself and be modest, we need a debate on the issue? This sort of thinking (if any thought is involved at all!) is bigoted and sexist and revolting on so many levels.

I do not have to be a Muslim to recognize the value of modesty. Don't other religions teach their followers to be modest? Isn't a woman (excluding one's wife of course) a representation of motherhood, the energy of Mother Earth, meant to be revered rather than lusted after?


Most people who do not understand, (or do not want to understand) the concept of the hijab will see it as an imprisonment, a sort of shackle. However, I (and many other Muslimahs) see the hijab as a garment representing freedom. A sign that reads "Treat me with respect" rather than "Ogle at me". Of course, there are Muslim women who choose not to wear the hijab (I haven't, but intend to at some point) and that is their relationship with their Creator. One of our family friends, DM shared, that when a woman wears the hijab, Allah himself is putting a cloak of protection around her. I thought it was a beautiful way of seeing things. Who wouldn't want the personal protection of God?

While we are at it, I wanted to share an experience. A couple of years ago, I had lost some 10 kgs (about 22 lbs) and guess was looking better than usual and returned home from Indonesia for a vacation. Suddenly, these men who I have known for years, looked at me with a glint in their eyes. I honestly felt violated and stripped down, rather than "flattered". There are all kinds of issues involved here. One, I guess at some level, some women would argue that it gives them a sense of power to be admired. Yeah right, admired like a chattel. I rather be respected for my inner beauty than 'admired' (which in this context, we know is lusted after) for my outer beauty. The real imprisonment is of women who are chained to their diets. This reminds me of the advertisement with women who have a scale chained around their ankles. The ad visually captures the lives of most women. That is the reality - becoming a slave to body consciousness versus soul consciousness. So much for women's liberation gals.

Press Release by Imams on Danish Caricatures, Violence, etc

This was a forward and I feel it is worth posting. You will have to go to the link to read it.

Asalamu 'Alaykum,

I apologize in advance for the "group" email. As most of you know,
we do not usually do this sort of thing unannounced. However, I was
asked by our teachers to get this out to as many people as possible
in attempt to provide clarity to this controversial issue.

Hopefully this will provide some clarity. Shaykh Saeed Ramadan
Bouti, Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayya, Shaykh Ali Jumuah, Al Habib Umar
bin Hafiz, Al Habib 'Ali al Jifri, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, and close to
40 religious leaders from around the world united together to produce
this OFFICIAL response of the Muslim Ulema concerning the Danish
Cartoon issue.


http://www.guidancemedia.com/downloads/articles/declaration.pdf

For those who prefer the original Arabic text, please refer to:

http://www.alhabibali.org/

We ask Allah to reward our scholars and religious leaders for there
unceasing efforts in His cause.

Wa Salam

Mustafa Davis

America - The New Terror School

I so do not understand this. It feels like a bad nightmare all over again. How can the American Government operate outside the international committees. The European Union has also called for the closing of the prison, but America has rejected it! How dare they! It is ridiculous. I am just watching this with my mouth wide open. It is such an affront to my sense of justice and accountability.

Donald Rumsfield even approves of these methods of torture and imprisonment.

There is karma. Here are people with no remorse and no sense of good and evil. I am hearing the BBC news right now, and Donald Jerkoff Rumsfield is saying that the people responsible have been punished. He is responsible for allowing just indecency to take place. If there is a murder taking place, and there is a bystander who just walks on, I would say he is partially responsible for death too. This is not even a bystander situation. These were his foot soldiers. They probably acted on his instructions.

If this is the American's response to terrorism, why, they seemed to have ousted the Taliban as the terror school!

UN Calls Guantánamo a US Torture Camp
By Sam Cage
The Associated Press

Thursday 16 February 2006

Geneva - The United States must close its detention facility at Guantánamo Bay because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice, a UN report released Thursday concluded.

The White House rejected the recommendation.

The 54-page report summarizing an investigation by five UN experts accused the United States of practices that "amount to torture" and demanded detainees be allowed a fair trial or freed. The investigators did not visit the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"Those people should be released or brought before an independent court," Manfred Nowak, the UN investigator for torture, told The Associated Press. "That should not be done in Guantánamo Bay, but before ordinary US courts, or courts in their countries of origin or perhaps an international tribunal."

The United States should allow "a full and independent investigation" at Guantánamo and also give the United Nations access to other detention centers, including secret ones, in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, Nowak said by telephone from his office in Vienna, Austria.

"We want to have all information about secret places of detention because whenever there is a secret place of detention, there is also a higher risk that people are subjected to torture," he said.

The United States is holding about 490 men at the military detention center. They are accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or to al-Qaida, but only a handful have been charged.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the call to shut the camp, saying the military treats all detainees humanely and "these are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about."

The UN investigators said photographic evidence - corroborated by testimony of former prisoners - showed detainees shackled, chained and hooded. Prisoners were beaten, stripped and shaved if they resisted, they said.

The report's findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and questions answered by the US government, which detailed the number of prisoners held but did not give their names or the status of charges against them.

Some of the interrogation techniques - particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation and prolonged isolation - caused extreme suffering.

"Such treatment amounts to torture, as it inflicts severe pain or suffering on the victims for the purpose of intimidation and/or punishment," the report said.

The UN experts who wrote the report had sought access to Guantánamo Bay since 2002. Three were invited last year, but refused in November after being told they could not interview detainees.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the UN report "clearly suffers from their unwillingness to take us up on our offer to go down to Guantánamo to observe first-hand the operations."

The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only independent monitoring body allowed to visit Guantánamo's detainees, but it reports its findings solely to US authorities.

Legislators and journalists have been allowed in on guided tours but few are permitted to see interrogations.

The US ambassador to UN offices in Geneva, Kevin Moley, wrote in a response that the investigation had taken little account of evidence provided by the United States.

"We categorically object to most of the unedited report's content and conclusions as largely without merit and not based clearly in the facts," Moley said.

Although his statement did not address specific allegations, the Pentagon has acknowledged 10 cases of abuse or mistreatment at Guantánamo, including a female interrogator climbing onto a detainee's lap and a detainee whose knees were bruised from being forced to kneel repeatedly.

In Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament condemned the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo and renewed its calls for the detention center to be closed.

Human rights activists also supported the investigators' findings.

Amnesty International said the report was only the "tip of the iceberg."

"The United States also operates detention facilities at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq and has been implicated in the use of secret detention facilities in other countries," an Amnesty statement said.

Many of the allegations in the report have been made before. But the document represented the first inquiry launched by the 53-nation UN Human Rights Commission, the world body's top rights watchdog.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric stressed it was compiled by independent experts. Asked whether Secretary General Kofi Annan endorsed the panel's findings, Dujarric said: "The secretary-general has often said, and repeatedly said, that there is a need for proper understanding and effective balance between action against terrorism and the protection of civil liberties and human rights."

The Invitation - by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

The Invitation


It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love, for your dreams,
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain,
mine or your own, without moving to hide it
or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own.
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy
fill you to the tips of your fingers
and toes without cautioning us
to be careful, be realistic,
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,“Yes.”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live,
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what
or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company
you keepin the empty moments.

Variations on the Word 'Sleep" by Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

-- Margaret Atwood

Kahlil Gibran on Love

Certainly some kind of love to aspire towards. As he says, it is no easy path. How beautifully profound the concept is.

On Love

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."

And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

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

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

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.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."

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 brook that sings its melody to 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.