/lit/ - Literature

>>22169196
>And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.
>And he said:
>Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
>Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
>And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
>And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
>And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
>Much of your pain is self-chosen.
>It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
>Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
>For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
>And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

— "The Prophet" (1923), Kahlil Gibran.