.... to my new blog address. I'm grateful that you decided to follow the trail and ended up here. As I said earlier this week, I'll continue writing about addiction and its affect on relationships - relational recovery. And, I'll offer reflections on the human journey from a spiritual perspective.
I'm start by following up on what I wrote about earlier in the week - on love as the centre of human experience - as the very essence of spirituality.
I referred to Kahlil Gibran's reflection on love from his book The Prophet. He uses the metaphor of the threshing-floor when talking about the courage it takes to be in love - that is, to be loving, to become love.
Threshing-floor. An old fashioned image. But if you know anything about the harvesting of grain you'll know that the separation of the fruit (the kernels of wheat, oats and so on) from the chaff (that part of the plant that can't be used for food) is a thorough and, in a way, violent process ....
Threshing-floor. A process that transforms ......
Love's threshing floor. Here's how Gibran develops the metaphor:
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.
It takes courage to enter into love's threshing-floor. In everyday terms we are asked to look at ourselves, to be responsible, honest and forgiving, to ......... to do and be all the things poets and mystics have testified to throughout human history.
Here's my new blog address (where you are right now). I'll meet you there, hopefully once a week or so.
