Globalisasi tampaknya sudah merasuk dalam setiap segi kehidupan kita, termasuk urusan makanan. Coba saja tanya pada anak-anak Anda apa makanan favorit mereka? Biasanya mereka lebih fasih menyebut pizza, fried chicken, atau crepes, dibandingkan makanan tradisional seperti bakpia, klepon, atau pepes.
Tak bisa dipungkiri makin banyaknya jenis makanan asal mancanegara maupun olahan pabrik membuat anak-anak kita lebih terekspos dengan jenis makanan tersebut. Apalagi biasanya makanan-makanan tersebut dikemas dengan menarik atau disajikan di resto cepat saji dengan berbagai promosi atau hadiah yang tentu menarik buat anak-anak. Karena sifat anak-anak yang selalu ingin mencoba hal baru dan mengikuti tren (apa yang dilakukan teman sebayanya), tak heran bila mereka lebih tertarik pada jenis makanan tersebut. Bisa ditebak, makanan tradisional makin ditinggalkan, bahkan banyak yang tak lagi dibuat dan lama-lama ‘menghilang’ karena tak adanya peminat.
Kondisi ini tentu sangat disayangkan, pasalnya makanan tradisional adalah suatu aset budaya yang sepatutnya harus terus dijaga keberadaannya. Penggunaan bahan dan rempah-rempah dari negeri sendiri, menghasilkan citarasa yang khas dan tidak dimiliki negara lain. Justru kelebihan inilah yang seharusnya mampu ”dijual” dan dijadikan kebanggaan Indonesia. Lihat saja Italia yang mampu menjadikan pizza sebagai makanan populer di seluruh dunia, atau Meksiko yang mampu membuat tortilla sukses menembus pasar Amerika.
Makanan tradisional pun telah terbukti ”keamanannya” bagi kesehatan tubuh selama puluhan bahkan ratusan tahun. Salah satunya karena makanan tradisional biasanya dibuat dengan memanfaatkan bahan-bahan lokal yang segar dan bumbu-bumbu alami. Pemakaian pengawet hampir tidak ada, karena semua bahan diperoleh dari lingkungan sekitar dalam keadaan segar, dan dikonsumsi langsung. Untuk keindahan tampilan, makanan tradisional biasanya juga menggunakan pewarna alami, misalnya saja daun pandan untuk warna hijau, gula palem untuk warna merah, kunyit untuk warna kuning. Cara pengolahan seperti seperti dikukus, dipepes, atau dibakar pun relatif lebih sehat dibanding masakan masa kini yang banyak menggunakan metode penggorengan.
Dengan segala kelebihannya, sudah saatnya Anda kembali melirik berbagai makanan tradisional bagi keluarga, terutama si kecil. Mungkin sebagian besar dari Anda akan berkilah bahwa anak-anak lebih memilih makanan modern, namun sebenarnya kebiasaan ini bisa diubah dengan tips sederhana berikut:
Urusan suka atau tidak suka, pepatah “Tak kenal maka tak sayang” bisa jadi panduannya. Bagaimana anak-anak akan mau dan menyukai makanan tradisional, bila mereka tidak dibiasakan? Karena itu cara terbaik mendidik dan membiasakan anak-anak menyukai makanan tradisional adalah membiasakan mereka terekspos dengan berbagai jenis makanan tradisional sejak usia muda. Mulailah dengan kudapan ringan, lalu perlahan sejalan pertambahan usia, perluas pilihan dan jenisnya.
Kerap kali anak-anak tertarik dengan tampilan makanannya. Tak ada salahnya menampilkan makanan tradisional dalam bentuk berbeda dan menarik bagi anak-anak. Misalnya saja membuat kue putu atau kue lapis dengan cetakan berbentuk binatang.
Ajak anak-anak melihat pembuatan makanan tradisional. Biasanya mereka lebih tertarik bila disertakan atau mengetahui proses pembuatannya. Tak cuma membuat mereka suka, dengan cara ini Anda membantu anak-anak mengembangkan wawasannya.
(sahabat nestle)
Selasa, 26 Agustus 2008
Selasa, 05 Agustus 2008
Kahlil Gibran, Books and Poems
Books :
- The Prophet
- The Beloved
- The Broken Wings
- The Eye Of The Prophet
- Spirit Brides
- Tears And Laughter
Poems :
- Sand And Foam
- The Madman
- A Tear And A Smile
- The Vision
- The Wanderer
- The Procession
- The Storm
- The Forerunnner
- Visions Of The Prophet
- The Prophet
- The Beloved
- The Broken Wings
- The Eye Of The Prophet
- Spirit Brides
- Tears And Laughter
Poems :
- Sand And Foam
- The Madman
- A Tear And A Smile
- The Vision
- The Wanderer
- The Procession
- The Storm
- The Forerunnner
- Visions Of The Prophet
Kahlil Gibran Biography
Gibran Khalil Gibran was born on January 6, 1883, to the Maronite family of Gibran in Bsharri, a mountainous area in Northern Lebanon.
Lebanon was a Turkish province part of Greater Syria (Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine) and subjugated to Ottoman dominion, which granted the Mount Lebanon area autonomous rule. The people of Mount Lebanon had struggled for several years to gain independence from the Ottoman rule, a cause Gibran was later to adopt and become an active member in. The Mount Lebanon area was a troubled region, due to the various outside and foreign interferences that fostered religious hatred between the Christian, especially the Maronite sect, and Moslem populations. Later in his life, Gibran was to seek and unite the various religious sects, in a bid to abolish the religious snobbery, persecution and atrocities witnessed at his time. The Maronite sect, formed during the schism in the Byzantine church in the 5th century A.D., was made up of a group of Syrian Christians, who joined the monk St. Marun to lead their own sectarian thought.
His mother Kamila Rahmeh was thirty when she begot Gibran from her third husband Khalil Gibran, who proved to be an irresponsible husband leading the family to poverty. Gibran had a half-brother six years older than him called Peter and two younger sisters, Mariana and Sultana, whom he was deeply attached to throughout his life, along with his mother. Kamila’s family came from a prestigious religious background, which imbued the uneducated mother with a strong will and later on helped her raise up the family on her own in the U.S.
Growing up in the lush region of Bsharri, Gibran proved to be a solitary and pensive child who relished the natural surroundings of the cascading falls, the rugged cliffs and the neighboring green cedars, the beauty of which emerged as a dramatic and symbolic influence to his drawings and writings. Being laden with poverty, he did not receive any formal education or learning, which was limited to regular visits to a village priest who doctrined him with the essentials of religion and the Bible, alongside Syriac and Arabic languages. Recognizing Gibran’s inquisitive and alert nature, the priest began teaching him the rudiments of alphabet and language, opening up to Gibran the world of history, science, and language. At the age of ten, Gibran fell off a cliff, wounding his left shoulder, which remained weak for the rest of his life ever since this incident. To relocate the shoulder, his family strapped it to a cross and wrapped it up for forty days, a symbolic incident reminiscent of Christ’s wanderings in the wilderness and which remained etched in Gibran’s memory.
At the age of eight, Khalil Gibran, Gibran's father, was accused of tax evasion and was sent to prison as the Ottomon authorities confiscated the Gibrans’ property and left them homeless. The family went to live with relatives for a while; however, the strong-willed mother decided that the family should immigrate to the U.S., seeking a better life and following in suit to Gibran’s uncle who immigrated earlier. The father was released in 1894, but being an irresponsible head of the family he was undecided about immigration and remained behind in Lebanon.
On June 25, 1895, the Gibrans embarked on a voyage to the American shores of New York.
The Gibrans settled in Boston’s South End, which at the time hosted the second largest Syrian community in the U.S. following New York. The culturally diverse area felt familiar to Kamila, who was comforted by the familiar spoken Arabic, and the widespread Arab customs. Kamila, now the bread-earner of the family, began to work as a peddler on the impoverished streets of South End Boston. At the time, peddling was the major source of income for most Syrian immigrants, who were negatively portrayed due to their unconventional Arab ways and their supposed idleness.
Growing up into another impoverished period, Gibran was to recall the pain of the first few years, which left an indelible mark on his life and prompted him to reinvent his childhood memories, dispelling the filth, the poverty and the slurs. However, the work of charity institutions in the poor immigrant areas allowed the children of immigrants to attend public schools and keep them off the street, and Gibran was the only member of his family to pursue scholastic education. His sisters were not allowed to enter school, thwarted by Middle Eastern traditions as well as financial difficulties. Later on in his life, Gibran was to champion the cause of women’s emancipation and education and surround himself with strong-willed, intellectual and independent women.
In the school, a registration mistake altered his name forever by shortening it to Kahlil Gibran, which remained unchanged till the rest of his life despite repeated attempts at restoring his full name. Gibran entered school on September 30, 1895, merely two months after his arrival in the U.S. Having no formal education, he was placed in an ungraded class reserved for immigrant children, who had to learn English from scratch. Gibran caught the eye of his teachers with his sketches and drawings, a hobby he had started during his childhood in Lebanon.
With Kamila’s hard work, the family’s financial standing improved as her savings allowed Peter to set up a goods store, in which both of Gibran's sisters worked. The financial strains of the family and the distance from home brought the family together, with Kamila providing both financial and emotional support to her children, especially to her introverted son Gibran. During this difficult period, Gibran's remoteness from social life and his pensive nature were deepened, and Kamila was there to help him overcome his reservedness. The mother’s independence allowed him to mingle with Boston’s social life and explore its thriving world of art and literature.
Gibran's curiosity led him to the cultural side of Boston, which exposed him to the rich world of the theatre, Opera and artistic Galleries. Prodded by the cultural scenes around him and through his artistic drawings, Gibran caught the attention of his teachers at the public school, who saw an artistic future for the Syrian boy. They contacted Fred Holland Day, an artist and a supporter of artists who opened up Gibran’s cultural world and set him on the road to artistic fame.
Gibran met Fred Holland Day in 1896, and from then his road to recognition was reached through Day’s artistic unconventionality and his contacts in Boston’s artistic circles. Day introduced Gibran to Greek mythology, world literature, contemporary writings and photography, ever prodding the inquisitive Syrian to seek self-expression. Day’s liberal education and unconventional artistic exploration influenced Gibran, who was to follow Day’s unfettered adoption of the unusual for the sake of originality and self-actualization. Other than working on Gibran’s education, Day was instrumental in lifting his self-esteem, which had suffered under the immigrant treatment and poverty of the times. Not surprisingly, Gibran emerged as a fast learner, devouring everything handed over by Day, despite weak Arabic and English. Under Day’s tutelage, Gibran uttered his first religious beliefs, when he declared "I am no longer a Catholic: I am a pagan," after reading one book given by Day.
During one of Fred Holland Day’s art exhibitions, Gibran drew a sketch of a certain Miss Josephine Peabody, an unknown poet and writer who was to later become one of his failed love experiences; later on, Gibran was to propose marriage and be met with refusal, the first blow in a series of heartaches dealt to Gibran by the women he loved.
Continually encouraging Gibran to improve his drawings and sketches, Day was instrumental in getting Gibran’s images printed as cover designs for books in 1898. At the time, Gibran began to develop his own technique and style, encouraged by Day’s enthusiasm and support. Gradually, Gibran entered the Bostonian circles and his artistic talents brought him fame at an early age. However, his family decided that early success could cause him future problems, and with Gibran’s approval, the young artist went back to Lebanon to finish his education and learn Arabic.
In 1898, Gibran arrived in Beirut speaking poor English and even little Arabic; he could speak Arabic fluently, but not read nor write it. To improve his Arabic, Gibran chose to enroll in the school Madrasat-al-Hikmah, a Maronite-founded school which offered a nationalistic curriculum partial to church writings, history and liturgy. Gibran’s strong-willed nature refused to abide by the parochial curriculum, demanding an individual curriculum catering to his educational needs and aimed at a college level, a gesture indicative of Gibran’s rebellious and individualistic nature; his arrogance bordered on heresy. Nonetheless, the school acquiesced to his request, editing course material to Gibran's liking. He chose to immerse himself in the Arabic-language bible, intrigued by its style and writing, features of which echo in his various works. As a student, Gibran left a great impression on his teachers and fellow students, who were impressed with his outlandish and individualistic behavior, self-confidence, and his unconventional long hair. His Arabic teacher saw in him "a loving but controlled heart, an impetuous soul, a rebellious mind, an eye mocking everything it sees". However, the school’s strict and disciplined atmosphere was not to Gibran’s liking, who flagrantly flouted religious duties, skipped classes and drew sketches on books. At the school, Gibran met Joseph Hawaiik, with whom he started a magazine called al-Manarah (the Beacon), both editing while Gibran illustrated.
Meanwhile, Josephine Peabody, the twenty-four year old Bostonian beauty who caught Gibran’s attention during one of Day’s exhibitions, was intrigued by the young Syrian artist who dedicated a sketch to her, and began corresponding with Gibran throughout his stay in Lebanon. Soon, he became romantically involved with Josephine, and they kept exchanging letters until the relationship fell apart, following the rebuffal of Gibran’s marriage proposal and Josephine’s eventual marriage in 1906.
Gibran finished college in 1902, learning Arabic and French and excelling in his studies, especially poetry. Meanwhile, his relationship with his father became strained over Gibran’s advanced erudition, driving him to move in with his cousin and to live an impoverished life he detested and was ashamed of until the rest of his life. The poverty in Lebanon was compounded with news of illness striking his family, with his half-brother's consumption, his sister Sultana’s intestinal trouble and his mother’s developing cancer. Upon receiving news of Sultana’s dire illness, Gibran left Lebanon in March of 1902.
To his misfortune, Gibran arrived too late; Sultana died at the age of fourteen on April 4th 1902, the first in a series of three family deaths which will fall upon him in the coming months. Gibran was very fond of his sisters and of his family as a whole. At the time of mourning, both Day and Josephine provided distractions for him, in form of artistic shows and meetings at Boston’s artistic circles. Gibran’s artistic talents and unique behavior had captured earlier the interest of the Bostonian society, which welcomed this foreign talent into their artistic circles.
Josephine, who slowly captured Gibran’s heart, became an inflectional person in his life, the Bostonian poet constantly referring to Gibran as ‘her young prophet’. Greatly intrigued by his oriental background, Josephine was charmed by Gibran’s vividly illustrated correspondences and conversations. Josephine’s care and attention were the inspiration behind his book The Prophet, the title of which is based on an eleven-stanza poem Joesphine wrote in December of 1902 describing Gibran’s life in Bsharri as she envisaged it. Later on, when Gibran was to publish The Prophet, he dedicated it to Josephine, whose care and tenderness helped him advance his career.
Illness struck again when his mother underwent an operation in February to remove a cancerous tumor. To compound his misery, Gibran was forced to take on the family business and run the goods store, which was abandoned by his half-brother Peter to pursue his fortune in Cuba. This new burden weighed on Gibran’s spirit, depriving him from dedicating his time to artistic pursuits. During this time, Gibran tried to shy away from the house, to escape the atmosphere of death, poverty and illness. In the following month, Peter returned to Boston from Cuba fatally sick only to die days later on March 12 of consumption. His mother’s cancer continued to spread and she died later that year on June 28, a scene which left Gibran fainting and foaming blood from the mouth.
Following the three family deaths, Gibran sold out the family business and began immersing himself in improving both his Arabic and English writings, a twin task which he was to pursue for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, Day and Josephine were helping him launch his debut art exhibition, which was to feature his allegorical and symbolic charcoal drawings that so fascinated Boston’s society. The exhibition opened on May 3, 1904, and proved a success with the critics. However, the exhibition’s significance lay elsewhere. Josephine, through her future husband, invited a schoolmistress called Mary Haskell to examine Gibran’s drawings. This introduction to the schoolmistress was to mark the beginning of a lifetime relationship, which would greatly influence Gibran’s writing career. Gibran had sought Josephine’s opinion about his Arabic writings, translating them into English. With the language barrier, Josephine could only provide criticism over ideas and thoughts, leaving Gibran alone to tackle his linguistic problems. Josephine’s role was to be taken over by Mary Haskell.
Mary Haskell, who was thirty at the time and ten years older than Gibran, will go on to finance Gibran’s artistic development and encourage him to become the artist that he aspired to be. As a school head mistress, Haskell was an educated, strong-willed and independent woman and an active champion of women’s liberation, who was set apart to Josephine Peabody’s romantic nature. Mary was the reason behind Gibran’s decision to explore writing in English, as she persuaded Gibran to refrain from translating his Arabic works to English and concentrate instead on writing in English directly. Mary’s collaboration and editing of his various English works polished Gibran’s work, most of which first underwent Mary’s editing before going to the publishers. She would spend hours with Gibran, going over his wording, correcting his mistakes and suggesting new ideas to his writings. She even attempted learning Arabic to gain a better grasp of Gibran’s language and his thoughts.
The significance of Mary’s relationship with Gibran is revealed through her diaries, in which she recorded Gibran’s artistic development, their personal and intellectual conversations and his innermost thoughts for nearly seventeen years and a half. These recordings have provided critics with valuable insight into Gibran’s personal thoughts and ideas, which he kept away from the public eye.
In 1904, Gibran started to contribute articles to the Arabic-speaking émigré newspaper called Al-Mouhajer (The Emigrant), marking his first published written work. His first publication was called ‘Vision’, a romantic essay that portrayed a caged bird amid an abundance of symbolism. Despite spending four years in Lebanon learning Arabic, Gibran’s written Arabic left something to be desired. To master Arabic, Gibran relied on his ear for capturing traditional vocabulary, depending heavily on the Arabic stories narrated in his hometown of Bsharri. Hence his Arabic writing had a colloquial feel to it, which was comfortable to his audiences. According to Gibran, rules of language were meant to be broken and he went on to advocate Arab émigré writers to break out of tradition and seek an individual style. Throughout his life, Gibran’s Arabic writings did not receive the critical acclaim his English books had, leading him later on to concentrate on his English writings and abandon the cause of improving his Arabic style.
Gibran’s first Arabic written work came out in 1905 with the publication of Nubthah fi Fan Al-Musiqa (Music), a book inspired by his brother’s 'oud playing and Day’s several invitations to the Opera. During that year, Gibran started a column in Al-Mohajer called ‘Tears and Laughter’’, which was to form the basis of his book A Tear and a Smile. While writing in Al-Mohajer, a certain Arabic émigré writer called Ameen Rihani, wrote to the magazine lauding Gibran’s article which attacked contemporary Arab writers for imitating traditional writers and using poetry for financial gain. Rihani was to become an important Arabic writer and a friend of Gibran’s, whom he later left for the life-long friendship of Mikhail Naimy. At the time, Gibran published several Arabic poems and wrote in newspapers, about various subjects relating to love, truth, beauty, death, good and evil. Most of his writings had a romantic edge to them, with bitter and ironic tones.
In 1906, Gibran published his second Arabic book called Arayis Al-Muruj (The Nymphs of the Valley), a collection of three allegories which take place in Northern Lebanon. The allegories- ‘Martha’, ‘Yuhanna the Mad’, and ‘Dust of Ages and the Eternal Fire’- dealt with issues relating to prostitution, religious persecution, reincarnation and pre-ordained love. The allegories were heavily influenced by the stories he heard back in Bsharri and his own fascination with the Bible, the mystical, and the nature of love. Gibran was to return to the subject of madness in his English book ‘The Madman,’ whose beginnings can be traced to Gibran’s early Arabic writings. What characterized Gibran’s early Arabic publications was the use of the ironic, the realism of the stories, the portrayal of second-class citizens and the anti-religious tone, all of which contrasted with the formalistic and traditional Arabic writings.
Gibran published his third Arabic book Al-Arwah Al-Mutamarridah (Spirits Rebellious) in March of 1908, a collection of four narrative writings based on his writing in Al-Mouhajer. The book dealt with social issues in Lebanon, portraying a married woman’s emancipation from her husband, a heretic’s call for freedom, a bride’s escape from an unwanted marriage through death and the brutal injustices of 19th century Lebanese feudal lords. These writings received strong criticism from the clergy for their bold ideas, their negative portrayal of clergymen and their encouragement of women’s liberation. Gibran was to later recall to Mary the dark period in which Spirits Rebellious was written, during a time when he was haunted by death, illness and loss of love. The anti-clerical content of the book threatened Gibran with excommunication from the church, with the book being censored by the Syrian government
By 1923, Gibran had developed a close correspondence with an Arab writer, May Ziadeh. Their acceptance began in 1912, when she wrote to Gibran recalling to him how moved she was with the story of Selma Karameh in The Broken Wings.
May, an intellectual writer and an active proponent of women’s emancipation, was born in Palestine where she received classical education in a convent school. In 1908 she had moved to Cairo where her father started a newspaper. Similar to Gibran, May was fluent in English, Arabic and French, and in 1911 she published her poems under the pseudonym Isis Copia. May found The Broken Wings too liberal for her own tastes, but the subject of women’s rights occupied her until the rest of her life and was a common passion between her and Gibran. Later on, May became a champion of Gibran’s writings and came to replace Mary’s role as an editor and conversant over the coming years. By 1921, Gibran had received her picture and they were to continue corresponding until the end of his life.
During the twenties, Gibran continued to be active in the political arena, writing extensively on the issue of culture and society and the need of the emerging Arab countries to transport the positive sides of Western culture. Gibran’s writings had remained controversial in his home country, especially with his liberal views on the Church and clergy. As a writer, Gibran relished controversy, and his writings reflected this spirit. His limited success in the Arab world drove Gibran to abandon the cause of gaining acceptance as an Arabic writer and he concentrated his efforts instead on writing in English. Slowly, Gibran was getting to grips with his writing, creating a style of language, as he revealed to Mary that he wished to write small unified books, which could be read in one sitting and carried in one’s pocket.
Mary's role in Gibran's writing career was gradually dwindling, but she came to his rescue when he made some bad investments. Mary had always handled Gibran’s financial affairs, ever present to extricate him from his bad financial keeping. However, Mary was about to make her life decision in 1923 by deciding to move into the house of a Southern landowner, to become his future wife in May of 1926. Gibran helped her reach this decision, which slightly clouded their relationship. However, Gibran continued to confide in Mary, and he told her about the second and third parts of The Prophet which he intended to write. The second part was to be called The Garden of the Prophet and it would recount the time the prophet spent in the garden on the island talking to his followers. The third part would be called The Death of the Prophet and it would describe the prophet’s return from the island and how he is imprisoned and freed only to be stoned to death in the market place. Gibran’s project was never to be completed, due to the deterioration of his health and his preoccupation with writing his longest English book, Jesus, The Son of Man.
As Mary slipped slowly out of his life, Gibran hired a new assistant Henrietta Breckenridge, who later played an important role following his death. She organized his works, helped him edit his writings and managed his studio for him. By 1926, Gibran had become a well-known international figure, a stance which was to his liking. Seeking a greater cosmopolitan exposure, Gibran began in 1926 to contribute articles to the quarterly journal The New Orient, which had an international approach encouraging the East and West to meet. At the time, he had started working on a new English work, Lazarus and His Beloved, which was based on an earlier Arabic work. This book was a dramatic collection of four poems recounting the Bible story of Lazarus, his quest for his soul and his eventual meeting of his soul mate.
In May of 1926, Mary married the Southern Landowner Florance Minis. At the time, Mary’s journals reveal Gibran’s perception with the writing of Jesus, The Son of Man. Writing the story of Jesus had been a lifetime ambition, especially the attempt at portraying Jesus as no one else has done before. Gibran had traced Jesus’ life from Syria to Palestine, never sparing a book that recounted his life journey. To Gibran, Jesus appeared as human acting in natural surroundings and he often had dreams about meeting his ideal character in the natural scenery of Bsharri. Gibran’s imagination was further fueled by the native stories he had heard in Lebanon about Jesus’ life and acts. Soon, by January of 1927 Mary was editing the book, for Gibran still relied on Mary’s editing before sending his works to print.
By 1928, Gibran’s health began to deteriorate, and the pain in his body due to his nervous state was on the increase, driving Gibran to seek relief in alcohol. Soon Gibran’s excess drinking turned him into an alcoholic at the height of the prohibition period in the U.S. That same year, Gibran was already thinking of the post-life and he began inquiring about purchasing a monastery in Bsharri, which was owned by Christian Carmelites. In November of 1928, Jesus, Son of Man was published and received good reviews from the local press, who delighted in Gibran’s treatment of Jesus, the Son of Man. By that time, the artistic circles thought it was high time Gibran was honored; by 1929 every possible society sought to give him a tribute. In honor of his literary success, a special anthology of Gibran’s early works was issued by Arrabitah under the title As-Sanabil.
Gibran’s mental health, however, and his alcohol addiction drove him in one evening to burst out crying, lamenting the weakness of his mature works. ‘I have lost my original creative power,’ he lamented to an audience during a reading of one of his mature works. By 1929, doctors were able to trace Gibran’s physical ailment to the enlargement of his livers. To avoid the issue of illness, Gibran ignored all medical care, relying instead on heavy drinking. To distract himself, Gibran turned to an old work about three Earth gods written in 1911. This new book recounts the story of three earth gods who watch the drama of a couple falling in love. Mary edited the book which went into print in mid-March of 1930.
By 1930, Gibran’s excessive drinking to escape the pain in his liver aggravated his disease, and hopes of finishing the second part of The Prophet, The Garden of the Prophet, dwindled. Gibran revealed to Mary his plans of building a library in Bsharri a nd soon he drew the last copy of his will. To his pen-pal May Ziadeh, Gibran revealed the fear of death as he admitted, ‘I am, May, a small volcano whose opening has been closed.'
On April 10th 1931, Gibran died at the age of forty-eight in a New York hospital, as the spreading cancer in his liver left him unconscious. The New York streets staged a two-day vigil for Gibran’s honor, whose death was mourned in the U.S. and Lebanon. His will left large amounts of money to his country, since he wanted his Syrian citizens to remain in their country and develop it rather than immigrate. Mary, Mariana and Henrietta all attended to Gibran’s studio, organizing his works, sorting out books, illustrations and drawings. To fulfill Gibran’s dream, Marianna and Mary travelled in July of 1931 to Lebanon to bury Gibran in his hometown of Bsharri. The citizens of Lebanon received his coffin with celebration rather than mourning, rejoicing his homecoming, for in death Gibran’s popularity increased. Upon Gibran’s return, The Lebanese Minister of Arts opened the coffins and honored his body with a decoration of Fine Arts. Meanwhile, Marianna and Mary started negotiating the purchase of the Carmelite monastery Gibran wished to obtain. By January of 1932, the Mar Sarkis monastery was bought and Gibran moved to his final resting-place. Upon Mary’s suggestion, his belongings, the books he read, and some of his works and illustrations were later shipped to provide a local collection in the monastery, which turned into a Gibran museum.
Lebanon was a Turkish province part of Greater Syria (Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine) and subjugated to Ottoman dominion, which granted the Mount Lebanon area autonomous rule. The people of Mount Lebanon had struggled for several years to gain independence from the Ottoman rule, a cause Gibran was later to adopt and become an active member in. The Mount Lebanon area was a troubled region, due to the various outside and foreign interferences that fostered religious hatred between the Christian, especially the Maronite sect, and Moslem populations. Later in his life, Gibran was to seek and unite the various religious sects, in a bid to abolish the religious snobbery, persecution and atrocities witnessed at his time. The Maronite sect, formed during the schism in the Byzantine church in the 5th century A.D., was made up of a group of Syrian Christians, who joined the monk St. Marun to lead their own sectarian thought.
His mother Kamila Rahmeh was thirty when she begot Gibran from her third husband Khalil Gibran, who proved to be an irresponsible husband leading the family to poverty. Gibran had a half-brother six years older than him called Peter and two younger sisters, Mariana and Sultana, whom he was deeply attached to throughout his life, along with his mother. Kamila’s family came from a prestigious religious background, which imbued the uneducated mother with a strong will and later on helped her raise up the family on her own in the U.S.
Growing up in the lush region of Bsharri, Gibran proved to be a solitary and pensive child who relished the natural surroundings of the cascading falls, the rugged cliffs and the neighboring green cedars, the beauty of which emerged as a dramatic and symbolic influence to his drawings and writings. Being laden with poverty, he did not receive any formal education or learning, which was limited to regular visits to a village priest who doctrined him with the essentials of religion and the Bible, alongside Syriac and Arabic languages. Recognizing Gibran’s inquisitive and alert nature, the priest began teaching him the rudiments of alphabet and language, opening up to Gibran the world of history, science, and language. At the age of ten, Gibran fell off a cliff, wounding his left shoulder, which remained weak for the rest of his life ever since this incident. To relocate the shoulder, his family strapped it to a cross and wrapped it up for forty days, a symbolic incident reminiscent of Christ’s wanderings in the wilderness and which remained etched in Gibran’s memory.
At the age of eight, Khalil Gibran, Gibran's father, was accused of tax evasion and was sent to prison as the Ottomon authorities confiscated the Gibrans’ property and left them homeless. The family went to live with relatives for a while; however, the strong-willed mother decided that the family should immigrate to the U.S., seeking a better life and following in suit to Gibran’s uncle who immigrated earlier. The father was released in 1894, but being an irresponsible head of the family he was undecided about immigration and remained behind in Lebanon.
On June 25, 1895, the Gibrans embarked on a voyage to the American shores of New York.
The Gibrans settled in Boston’s South End, which at the time hosted the second largest Syrian community in the U.S. following New York. The culturally diverse area felt familiar to Kamila, who was comforted by the familiar spoken Arabic, and the widespread Arab customs. Kamila, now the bread-earner of the family, began to work as a peddler on the impoverished streets of South End Boston. At the time, peddling was the major source of income for most Syrian immigrants, who were negatively portrayed due to their unconventional Arab ways and their supposed idleness.
Growing up into another impoverished period, Gibran was to recall the pain of the first few years, which left an indelible mark on his life and prompted him to reinvent his childhood memories, dispelling the filth, the poverty and the slurs. However, the work of charity institutions in the poor immigrant areas allowed the children of immigrants to attend public schools and keep them off the street, and Gibran was the only member of his family to pursue scholastic education. His sisters were not allowed to enter school, thwarted by Middle Eastern traditions as well as financial difficulties. Later on in his life, Gibran was to champion the cause of women’s emancipation and education and surround himself with strong-willed, intellectual and independent women.
In the school, a registration mistake altered his name forever by shortening it to Kahlil Gibran, which remained unchanged till the rest of his life despite repeated attempts at restoring his full name. Gibran entered school on September 30, 1895, merely two months after his arrival in the U.S. Having no formal education, he was placed in an ungraded class reserved for immigrant children, who had to learn English from scratch. Gibran caught the eye of his teachers with his sketches and drawings, a hobby he had started during his childhood in Lebanon.
With Kamila’s hard work, the family’s financial standing improved as her savings allowed Peter to set up a goods store, in which both of Gibran's sisters worked. The financial strains of the family and the distance from home brought the family together, with Kamila providing both financial and emotional support to her children, especially to her introverted son Gibran. During this difficult period, Gibran's remoteness from social life and his pensive nature were deepened, and Kamila was there to help him overcome his reservedness. The mother’s independence allowed him to mingle with Boston’s social life and explore its thriving world of art and literature.
Gibran's curiosity led him to the cultural side of Boston, which exposed him to the rich world of the theatre, Opera and artistic Galleries. Prodded by the cultural scenes around him and through his artistic drawings, Gibran caught the attention of his teachers at the public school, who saw an artistic future for the Syrian boy. They contacted Fred Holland Day, an artist and a supporter of artists who opened up Gibran’s cultural world and set him on the road to artistic fame.
Gibran met Fred Holland Day in 1896, and from then his road to recognition was reached through Day’s artistic unconventionality and his contacts in Boston’s artistic circles. Day introduced Gibran to Greek mythology, world literature, contemporary writings and photography, ever prodding the inquisitive Syrian to seek self-expression. Day’s liberal education and unconventional artistic exploration influenced Gibran, who was to follow Day’s unfettered adoption of the unusual for the sake of originality and self-actualization. Other than working on Gibran’s education, Day was instrumental in lifting his self-esteem, which had suffered under the immigrant treatment and poverty of the times. Not surprisingly, Gibran emerged as a fast learner, devouring everything handed over by Day, despite weak Arabic and English. Under Day’s tutelage, Gibran uttered his first religious beliefs, when he declared "I am no longer a Catholic: I am a pagan," after reading one book given by Day.
During one of Fred Holland Day’s art exhibitions, Gibran drew a sketch of a certain Miss Josephine Peabody, an unknown poet and writer who was to later become one of his failed love experiences; later on, Gibran was to propose marriage and be met with refusal, the first blow in a series of heartaches dealt to Gibran by the women he loved.
Continually encouraging Gibran to improve his drawings and sketches, Day was instrumental in getting Gibran’s images printed as cover designs for books in 1898. At the time, Gibran began to develop his own technique and style, encouraged by Day’s enthusiasm and support. Gradually, Gibran entered the Bostonian circles and his artistic talents brought him fame at an early age. However, his family decided that early success could cause him future problems, and with Gibran’s approval, the young artist went back to Lebanon to finish his education and learn Arabic.
In 1898, Gibran arrived in Beirut speaking poor English and even little Arabic; he could speak Arabic fluently, but not read nor write it. To improve his Arabic, Gibran chose to enroll in the school Madrasat-al-Hikmah, a Maronite-founded school which offered a nationalistic curriculum partial to church writings, history and liturgy. Gibran’s strong-willed nature refused to abide by the parochial curriculum, demanding an individual curriculum catering to his educational needs and aimed at a college level, a gesture indicative of Gibran’s rebellious and individualistic nature; his arrogance bordered on heresy. Nonetheless, the school acquiesced to his request, editing course material to Gibran's liking. He chose to immerse himself in the Arabic-language bible, intrigued by its style and writing, features of which echo in his various works. As a student, Gibran left a great impression on his teachers and fellow students, who were impressed with his outlandish and individualistic behavior, self-confidence, and his unconventional long hair. His Arabic teacher saw in him "a loving but controlled heart, an impetuous soul, a rebellious mind, an eye mocking everything it sees". However, the school’s strict and disciplined atmosphere was not to Gibran’s liking, who flagrantly flouted religious duties, skipped classes and drew sketches on books. At the school, Gibran met Joseph Hawaiik, with whom he started a magazine called al-Manarah (the Beacon), both editing while Gibran illustrated.
Meanwhile, Josephine Peabody, the twenty-four year old Bostonian beauty who caught Gibran’s attention during one of Day’s exhibitions, was intrigued by the young Syrian artist who dedicated a sketch to her, and began corresponding with Gibran throughout his stay in Lebanon. Soon, he became romantically involved with Josephine, and they kept exchanging letters until the relationship fell apart, following the rebuffal of Gibran’s marriage proposal and Josephine’s eventual marriage in 1906.
Gibran finished college in 1902, learning Arabic and French and excelling in his studies, especially poetry. Meanwhile, his relationship with his father became strained over Gibran’s advanced erudition, driving him to move in with his cousin and to live an impoverished life he detested and was ashamed of until the rest of his life. The poverty in Lebanon was compounded with news of illness striking his family, with his half-brother's consumption, his sister Sultana’s intestinal trouble and his mother’s developing cancer. Upon receiving news of Sultana’s dire illness, Gibran left Lebanon in March of 1902.
To his misfortune, Gibran arrived too late; Sultana died at the age of fourteen on April 4th 1902, the first in a series of three family deaths which will fall upon him in the coming months. Gibran was very fond of his sisters and of his family as a whole. At the time of mourning, both Day and Josephine provided distractions for him, in form of artistic shows and meetings at Boston’s artistic circles. Gibran’s artistic talents and unique behavior had captured earlier the interest of the Bostonian society, which welcomed this foreign talent into their artistic circles.
Josephine, who slowly captured Gibran’s heart, became an inflectional person in his life, the Bostonian poet constantly referring to Gibran as ‘her young prophet’. Greatly intrigued by his oriental background, Josephine was charmed by Gibran’s vividly illustrated correspondences and conversations. Josephine’s care and attention were the inspiration behind his book The Prophet, the title of which is based on an eleven-stanza poem Joesphine wrote in December of 1902 describing Gibran’s life in Bsharri as she envisaged it. Later on, when Gibran was to publish The Prophet, he dedicated it to Josephine, whose care and tenderness helped him advance his career.
Illness struck again when his mother underwent an operation in February to remove a cancerous tumor. To compound his misery, Gibran was forced to take on the family business and run the goods store, which was abandoned by his half-brother Peter to pursue his fortune in Cuba. This new burden weighed on Gibran’s spirit, depriving him from dedicating his time to artistic pursuits. During this time, Gibran tried to shy away from the house, to escape the atmosphere of death, poverty and illness. In the following month, Peter returned to Boston from Cuba fatally sick only to die days later on March 12 of consumption. His mother’s cancer continued to spread and she died later that year on June 28, a scene which left Gibran fainting and foaming blood from the mouth.
Following the three family deaths, Gibran sold out the family business and began immersing himself in improving both his Arabic and English writings, a twin task which he was to pursue for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, Day and Josephine were helping him launch his debut art exhibition, which was to feature his allegorical and symbolic charcoal drawings that so fascinated Boston’s society. The exhibition opened on May 3, 1904, and proved a success with the critics. However, the exhibition’s significance lay elsewhere. Josephine, through her future husband, invited a schoolmistress called Mary Haskell to examine Gibran’s drawings. This introduction to the schoolmistress was to mark the beginning of a lifetime relationship, which would greatly influence Gibran’s writing career. Gibran had sought Josephine’s opinion about his Arabic writings, translating them into English. With the language barrier, Josephine could only provide criticism over ideas and thoughts, leaving Gibran alone to tackle his linguistic problems. Josephine’s role was to be taken over by Mary Haskell.
Mary Haskell, who was thirty at the time and ten years older than Gibran, will go on to finance Gibran’s artistic development and encourage him to become the artist that he aspired to be. As a school head mistress, Haskell was an educated, strong-willed and independent woman and an active champion of women’s liberation, who was set apart to Josephine Peabody’s romantic nature. Mary was the reason behind Gibran’s decision to explore writing in English, as she persuaded Gibran to refrain from translating his Arabic works to English and concentrate instead on writing in English directly. Mary’s collaboration and editing of his various English works polished Gibran’s work, most of which first underwent Mary’s editing before going to the publishers. She would spend hours with Gibran, going over his wording, correcting his mistakes and suggesting new ideas to his writings. She even attempted learning Arabic to gain a better grasp of Gibran’s language and his thoughts.
The significance of Mary’s relationship with Gibran is revealed through her diaries, in which she recorded Gibran’s artistic development, their personal and intellectual conversations and his innermost thoughts for nearly seventeen years and a half. These recordings have provided critics with valuable insight into Gibran’s personal thoughts and ideas, which he kept away from the public eye.
In 1904, Gibran started to contribute articles to the Arabic-speaking émigré newspaper called Al-Mouhajer (The Emigrant), marking his first published written work. His first publication was called ‘Vision’, a romantic essay that portrayed a caged bird amid an abundance of symbolism. Despite spending four years in Lebanon learning Arabic, Gibran’s written Arabic left something to be desired. To master Arabic, Gibran relied on his ear for capturing traditional vocabulary, depending heavily on the Arabic stories narrated in his hometown of Bsharri. Hence his Arabic writing had a colloquial feel to it, which was comfortable to his audiences. According to Gibran, rules of language were meant to be broken and he went on to advocate Arab émigré writers to break out of tradition and seek an individual style. Throughout his life, Gibran’s Arabic writings did not receive the critical acclaim his English books had, leading him later on to concentrate on his English writings and abandon the cause of improving his Arabic style.
Gibran’s first Arabic written work came out in 1905 with the publication of Nubthah fi Fan Al-Musiqa (Music), a book inspired by his brother’s 'oud playing and Day’s several invitations to the Opera. During that year, Gibran started a column in Al-Mohajer called ‘Tears and Laughter’’, which was to form the basis of his book A Tear and a Smile. While writing in Al-Mohajer, a certain Arabic émigré writer called Ameen Rihani, wrote to the magazine lauding Gibran’s article which attacked contemporary Arab writers for imitating traditional writers and using poetry for financial gain. Rihani was to become an important Arabic writer and a friend of Gibran’s, whom he later left for the life-long friendship of Mikhail Naimy. At the time, Gibran published several Arabic poems and wrote in newspapers, about various subjects relating to love, truth, beauty, death, good and evil. Most of his writings had a romantic edge to them, with bitter and ironic tones.
In 1906, Gibran published his second Arabic book called Arayis Al-Muruj (The Nymphs of the Valley), a collection of three allegories which take place in Northern Lebanon. The allegories- ‘Martha’, ‘Yuhanna the Mad’, and ‘Dust of Ages and the Eternal Fire’- dealt with issues relating to prostitution, religious persecution, reincarnation and pre-ordained love. The allegories were heavily influenced by the stories he heard back in Bsharri and his own fascination with the Bible, the mystical, and the nature of love. Gibran was to return to the subject of madness in his English book ‘The Madman,’ whose beginnings can be traced to Gibran’s early Arabic writings. What characterized Gibran’s early Arabic publications was the use of the ironic, the realism of the stories, the portrayal of second-class citizens and the anti-religious tone, all of which contrasted with the formalistic and traditional Arabic writings.
Gibran published his third Arabic book Al-Arwah Al-Mutamarridah (Spirits Rebellious) in March of 1908, a collection of four narrative writings based on his writing in Al-Mouhajer. The book dealt with social issues in Lebanon, portraying a married woman’s emancipation from her husband, a heretic’s call for freedom, a bride’s escape from an unwanted marriage through death and the brutal injustices of 19th century Lebanese feudal lords. These writings received strong criticism from the clergy for their bold ideas, their negative portrayal of clergymen and their encouragement of women’s liberation. Gibran was to later recall to Mary the dark period in which Spirits Rebellious was written, during a time when he was haunted by death, illness and loss of love. The anti-clerical content of the book threatened Gibran with excommunication from the church, with the book being censored by the Syrian government
By 1923, Gibran had developed a close correspondence with an Arab writer, May Ziadeh. Their acceptance began in 1912, when she wrote to Gibran recalling to him how moved she was with the story of Selma Karameh in The Broken Wings.
May, an intellectual writer and an active proponent of women’s emancipation, was born in Palestine where she received classical education in a convent school. In 1908 she had moved to Cairo where her father started a newspaper. Similar to Gibran, May was fluent in English, Arabic and French, and in 1911 she published her poems under the pseudonym Isis Copia. May found The Broken Wings too liberal for her own tastes, but the subject of women’s rights occupied her until the rest of her life and was a common passion between her and Gibran. Later on, May became a champion of Gibran’s writings and came to replace Mary’s role as an editor and conversant over the coming years. By 1921, Gibran had received her picture and they were to continue corresponding until the end of his life.
During the twenties, Gibran continued to be active in the political arena, writing extensively on the issue of culture and society and the need of the emerging Arab countries to transport the positive sides of Western culture. Gibran’s writings had remained controversial in his home country, especially with his liberal views on the Church and clergy. As a writer, Gibran relished controversy, and his writings reflected this spirit. His limited success in the Arab world drove Gibran to abandon the cause of gaining acceptance as an Arabic writer and he concentrated his efforts instead on writing in English. Slowly, Gibran was getting to grips with his writing, creating a style of language, as he revealed to Mary that he wished to write small unified books, which could be read in one sitting and carried in one’s pocket.
Mary's role in Gibran's writing career was gradually dwindling, but she came to his rescue when he made some bad investments. Mary had always handled Gibran’s financial affairs, ever present to extricate him from his bad financial keeping. However, Mary was about to make her life decision in 1923 by deciding to move into the house of a Southern landowner, to become his future wife in May of 1926. Gibran helped her reach this decision, which slightly clouded their relationship. However, Gibran continued to confide in Mary, and he told her about the second and third parts of The Prophet which he intended to write. The second part was to be called The Garden of the Prophet and it would recount the time the prophet spent in the garden on the island talking to his followers. The third part would be called The Death of the Prophet and it would describe the prophet’s return from the island and how he is imprisoned and freed only to be stoned to death in the market place. Gibran’s project was never to be completed, due to the deterioration of his health and his preoccupation with writing his longest English book, Jesus, The Son of Man.
As Mary slipped slowly out of his life, Gibran hired a new assistant Henrietta Breckenridge, who later played an important role following his death. She organized his works, helped him edit his writings and managed his studio for him. By 1926, Gibran had become a well-known international figure, a stance which was to his liking. Seeking a greater cosmopolitan exposure, Gibran began in 1926 to contribute articles to the quarterly journal The New Orient, which had an international approach encouraging the East and West to meet. At the time, he had started working on a new English work, Lazarus and His Beloved, which was based on an earlier Arabic work. This book was a dramatic collection of four poems recounting the Bible story of Lazarus, his quest for his soul and his eventual meeting of his soul mate.
In May of 1926, Mary married the Southern Landowner Florance Minis. At the time, Mary’s journals reveal Gibran’s perception with the writing of Jesus, The Son of Man. Writing the story of Jesus had been a lifetime ambition, especially the attempt at portraying Jesus as no one else has done before. Gibran had traced Jesus’ life from Syria to Palestine, never sparing a book that recounted his life journey. To Gibran, Jesus appeared as human acting in natural surroundings and he often had dreams about meeting his ideal character in the natural scenery of Bsharri. Gibran’s imagination was further fueled by the native stories he had heard in Lebanon about Jesus’ life and acts. Soon, by January of 1927 Mary was editing the book, for Gibran still relied on Mary’s editing before sending his works to print.
By 1928, Gibran’s health began to deteriorate, and the pain in his body due to his nervous state was on the increase, driving Gibran to seek relief in alcohol. Soon Gibran’s excess drinking turned him into an alcoholic at the height of the prohibition period in the U.S. That same year, Gibran was already thinking of the post-life and he began inquiring about purchasing a monastery in Bsharri, which was owned by Christian Carmelites. In November of 1928, Jesus, Son of Man was published and received good reviews from the local press, who delighted in Gibran’s treatment of Jesus, the Son of Man. By that time, the artistic circles thought it was high time Gibran was honored; by 1929 every possible society sought to give him a tribute. In honor of his literary success, a special anthology of Gibran’s early works was issued by Arrabitah under the title As-Sanabil.
Gibran’s mental health, however, and his alcohol addiction drove him in one evening to burst out crying, lamenting the weakness of his mature works. ‘I have lost my original creative power,’ he lamented to an audience during a reading of one of his mature works. By 1929, doctors were able to trace Gibran’s physical ailment to the enlargement of his livers. To avoid the issue of illness, Gibran ignored all medical care, relying instead on heavy drinking. To distract himself, Gibran turned to an old work about three Earth gods written in 1911. This new book recounts the story of three earth gods who watch the drama of a couple falling in love. Mary edited the book which went into print in mid-March of 1930.
By 1930, Gibran’s excessive drinking to escape the pain in his liver aggravated his disease, and hopes of finishing the second part of The Prophet, The Garden of the Prophet, dwindled. Gibran revealed to Mary his plans of building a library in Bsharri a nd soon he drew the last copy of his will. To his pen-pal May Ziadeh, Gibran revealed the fear of death as he admitted, ‘I am, May, a small volcano whose opening has been closed.'
On April 10th 1931, Gibran died at the age of forty-eight in a New York hospital, as the spreading cancer in his liver left him unconscious. The New York streets staged a two-day vigil for Gibran’s honor, whose death was mourned in the U.S. and Lebanon. His will left large amounts of money to his country, since he wanted his Syrian citizens to remain in their country and develop it rather than immigrate. Mary, Mariana and Henrietta all attended to Gibran’s studio, organizing his works, sorting out books, illustrations and drawings. To fulfill Gibran’s dream, Marianna and Mary travelled in July of 1931 to Lebanon to bury Gibran in his hometown of Bsharri. The citizens of Lebanon received his coffin with celebration rather than mourning, rejoicing his homecoming, for in death Gibran’s popularity increased. Upon Gibran’s return, The Lebanese Minister of Arts opened the coffins and honored his body with a decoration of Fine Arts. Meanwhile, Marianna and Mary started negotiating the purchase of the Carmelite monastery Gibran wished to obtain. By January of 1932, the Mar Sarkis monastery was bought and Gibran moved to his final resting-place. Upon Mary’s suggestion, his belongings, the books he read, and some of his works and illustrations were later shipped to provide a local collection in the monastery, which turned into a Gibran museum.
Kahlil Gibran Quotes
A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?
Kahlil Gibran
A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.
Kahlil Gibran
Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.
Kahlil Gibran
All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.
Kahlil Gibran
All that spirits desire, spirits attain.
Kahlil Gibran
An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind.
Kahlil Gibran
And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Kahlil Gibran
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran
Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.
Kahlil Gibran
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
Kahlil Gibran
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.
Kahlil Gibran
Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.
Kahlil Gibran
Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.
Kahlil Gibran
Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Kahlil Gibran
Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Kahlil Gibran
Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.
Kahlil Gibran
Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.
Kahlil Gibran
Faith is an oasis in the heart which can never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
Kahlil Gibran
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
Kahlil Gibran
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
Kahlil Gibran
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Kahlil Gibran
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
Kahlil Gibran
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.
Kahlil Gibran
Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers.
Kahlil Gibran
I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.
Kahlil Gibran
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
Kahlil Gibran
I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
Kahlil Gibran
I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.
Kahlil Gibran
I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.
Kahlil Gibran
If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.
Kahlil Gibran
If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.
Kahlil Gibran
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.
Kahlil Gibran
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
Kahlil Gibran
If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.
Kahlil Gibran
If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
Kahlil Gibran
If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?
Kahlil Gibran
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
Kahlil Gibran
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
Kahlil Gibran
Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.
Kahlil Gibran
Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in you seeds.
Kahlil Gibran
Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.
Kahlil Gibran
Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.
Kahlil Gibran
Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.
Kahlil Gibran
Love is trembling happiness.
Kahlil Gibran
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Kahlil Gibran
Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
Kahlil Gibran
Love... It surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.
Kahlil Gibran
Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.
Kahlil Gibran
March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.
Kahlil Gibran
Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.
Kahlil Gibran
Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Kahlil Gibran
No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
Kahlil Gibran
Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.
Kahlil Gibran
Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand.
Kahlil Gibran
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
Kahlil Gibran
Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.
Kahlil Gibran
Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.
Kahlil Gibran
Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.
Kahlil Gibran
Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.
Kahlil Gibran
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
Kahlil Gibran
Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.
Kahlil Gibran
Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.
Kahlil Gibran
Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.
Kahlil Gibran
Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
Kahlil Gibran
The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.
Kahlil Gibran
The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.
Kahlil Gibran
The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.
Kahlil Gibran
The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.
Kahlil Gibran
The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.
Kahlil Gibran
The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.
Kahlil Gibran
The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
Kahlil Gibran
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
Kahlil Gibran
They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.
Kahlil Gibran
Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.
Kahlil Gibran
To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.
Kahlil Gibran
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.
Kahlil Gibran
Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Kahlil Gibran
Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.
Kahlil Gibran
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
Kahlil Gibran
What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?
Kahlil Gibran
What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?
Kahlil Gibran
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.
Kahlil Gibran
When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.
Kahlil Gibran
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Kahlil Gibran
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Kahlil Gibran
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Kahlil Gibran
Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?
Kahlil Gibran
Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer?
Kahlil Gibran
Where is the justice of political power if it... marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?
Kahlil Gibran
Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.
Kahlil Gibran
Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.
Kahlil Gibran
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran
Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.
Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.
Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream.
Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
Kahlil Gibran
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
Kahlil Gibran
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran
You have your ideology and I have mine.
Kahlil Gibran
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
Kahlil Gibran
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
Kahlil Gibran
Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.
Kahlil Gibran
Your friend is your needs answered.
Kahlil Gibran
Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Kahlil Gibran
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Kahlil Gibran
Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow.
Kahlil Gibran
Kahlil Gibran
A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.
Kahlil Gibran
Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.
Kahlil Gibran
All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.
Kahlil Gibran
All that spirits desire, spirits attain.
Kahlil Gibran
An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind.
Kahlil Gibran
And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Kahlil Gibran
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran
Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.
Kahlil Gibran
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
Kahlil Gibran
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.
Kahlil Gibran
Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.
Kahlil Gibran
Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.
Kahlil Gibran
Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Kahlil Gibran
Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Kahlil Gibran
Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.
Kahlil Gibran
Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.
Kahlil Gibran
Faith is an oasis in the heart which can never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
Kahlil Gibran
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
Kahlil Gibran
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
Kahlil Gibran
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Kahlil Gibran
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
Kahlil Gibran
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.
Kahlil Gibran
Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers.
Kahlil Gibran
I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.
Kahlil Gibran
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
Kahlil Gibran
I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
Kahlil Gibran
I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.
Kahlil Gibran
I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.
Kahlil Gibran
If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.
Kahlil Gibran
If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.
Kahlil Gibran
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.
Kahlil Gibran
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
Kahlil Gibran
If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.
Kahlil Gibran
If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
Kahlil Gibran
If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?
Kahlil Gibran
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
Kahlil Gibran
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
Kahlil Gibran
Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.
Kahlil Gibran
Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in you seeds.
Kahlil Gibran
Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.
Kahlil Gibran
Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.
Kahlil Gibran
Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.
Kahlil Gibran
Love is trembling happiness.
Kahlil Gibran
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Kahlil Gibran
Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
Kahlil Gibran
Love... It surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.
Kahlil Gibran
Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.
Kahlil Gibran
March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.
Kahlil Gibran
Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.
Kahlil Gibran
Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Kahlil Gibran
No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
Kahlil Gibran
Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.
Kahlil Gibran
Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand.
Kahlil Gibran
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
Kahlil Gibran
Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.
Kahlil Gibran
Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.
Kahlil Gibran
Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.
Kahlil Gibran
Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.
Kahlil Gibran
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
Kahlil Gibran
Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.
Kahlil Gibran
Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.
Kahlil Gibran
Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.
Kahlil Gibran
Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
Kahlil Gibran
The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.
Kahlil Gibran
The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.
Kahlil Gibran
The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.
Kahlil Gibran
The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.
Kahlil Gibran
The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.
Kahlil Gibran
The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.
Kahlil Gibran
The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
Kahlil Gibran
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
Kahlil Gibran
They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.
Kahlil Gibran
Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.
Kahlil Gibran
To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.
Kahlil Gibran
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.
Kahlil Gibran
Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Kahlil Gibran
Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.
Kahlil Gibran
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
Kahlil Gibran
What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?
Kahlil Gibran
What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?
Kahlil Gibran
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.
Kahlil Gibran
When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.
Kahlil Gibran
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Kahlil Gibran
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Kahlil Gibran
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Kahlil Gibran
Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?
Kahlil Gibran
Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer?
Kahlil Gibran
Where is the justice of political power if it... marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?
Kahlil Gibran
Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.
Kahlil Gibran
Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.
Kahlil Gibran
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran
Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.
Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.
Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream.
Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
Kahlil Gibran
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
Kahlil Gibran
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran
You have your ideology and I have mine.
Kahlil Gibran
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
Kahlil Gibran
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
Kahlil Gibran
Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.
Kahlil Gibran
Your friend is your needs answered.
Kahlil Gibran
Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Kahlil Gibran
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Kahlil Gibran
Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran - on Children
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran - 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, 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.
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, 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.
Senin, 04 Agustus 2008
Obat tradisional balita part-2
Untuk penyakit ringan obat tradisional sangat efektif hanya jika sampai 3 hari belum sembuh sebaiknya segera konsultasi ke dokter.
Berikut resep obat tradisional yang disalin sebuah milis:
* Asma
10 siung bawang putih diparut ditambah 1 gelas madu , kemudian dikukus, berikan pada anak sebanyak 1 sendok teh, dua kali sehari atau bisa juga madu diganti dengan 1 ons gula batu direbus dengan 1 gelas air.
*Luka-luka berdarah
Cuci bersih daun jambu biji kemudian remas-remas, tempelkan pada luka tersebut, darah akan berhenti segera.
*Biduran atau kaligata
Balurkan tubuh dengan minyak telon/minyak kayu putih/minyak tawon.
Untuk ramuan minum: 1 jari temulawak dipotong-potong ditambah sedikit gula merah dan garam, direbus dengan segelas air, saring dan bila sudah dingin diminumkan 3 kali sehari 1/4 gelas.
*Mimisan
Selembar daun sirih yang sudah dicuci dipilin dan disumpalkan ke hidung anak, untuk ramuan minum: 1/2 jempol umbi bidara upas yang sudah bersih diparut dan diseduh dengan 1 cangkir air panas, disaring dan setelah dingin ditambah sedikit madu diminumkan ke anak.
*Benjol karena benturan
Rendam 1 sendok makan beras, tumbuk bersama kencur, beri sedikit garam setelah halus tempelkan pada bagian yang benjol. Atau dapat juga diberi ramuan: bawang putih diparut diberi sedikit madu dan dioleskan dibagian yang benjol.
*Keringat buntet
Tepung kanji yang disangrai dibedakkan pada badan anak sesering mungkin.
*Congekan
Cuci bersih 3 lembar daun miana atau 7 lembar daun sambiloto segar atau lengkuas merah muda lalu tumbuk halus, peras dengan kain bersih dan teteskan air perasannya ke telinga, lakukan 2 kali sehari masing-masing 3 tetes.
*Panu
2Jari lengkuas merah diparut dan diberi sedikit cuka, oleskan pagi dan sore/malam pada bagian tubuh yang berpanu.
*Koreng atau borok kepala
Batang brotowali dipotong sepanjang 5 jari, direbus dengan sedikit air, oleskan air rebusan pada bagian kepala yang borok. Selain itu dapat juga diberi ramuan daun brotowali, parutan kunyit dan sedikit garam ditumbuk halus, oleskan ke kepala yang borok.
*Sakit gigi
Bawang putih diparut ditambah sedikit garam kemudian disumpalkan ke gigi yang sakit karena berlubang.
*Digigit nyamuk
Hilangkan bekas gigitan nyamuk dengan tanaman sambiloto yang diremas-remas dan dioleskan ke bagian bekas gigitan, selain itu dapat juga menggunakan minyak sereh.
*Penurun panas, batuk dan pilek
Parut bawang merah tambahkan minyak telon lalu balurkan pada punggung smapai bagian pantat sambil sedikit diurut, juga pusar dan ubun-ubun. Untuk ramuan minum: air kelapa 1 gelas ditambah 1 sendok teh madu, aduk lalu kukus, setelah dingin berikan pada anak sebanyak 3 sendok teh setiap 2 jam sekali, ramuan ini hanya untuk bayi diatas 8 bulan, untuk dibawah 8 bulan cukup diberi asi saja atau ibunya yang minum ramuan ini. Pada anak yang lebih besar berikan ramuan minum berupa 1 ruas jari kunyit yang bersih dibakar, dikerik kulitnya, diparut lalu diberi air matang 1/2 cangkir, kemudian diperas dan diendapkan, campur bagian air tanpa endapan dengan kocokan 1 butir kuning telur dan 1 sendok makan madu kemudian diminumkan ke anak.
*Perut kembung
Parut bawang merah dan tambahkan minyak telon kemudian tapelkan dibagian pusar, atau dengan cara lain yaitu daun jarak pagar diolesi minyak kelapa,pilin-pilin lalu tempelkan pada pusar anak.
*Diare
1/2 jari kunyit yang bersih dibakar, dipotong-potong, 7 pucuk daun jambu biji, air 2 gelas dan garam 1/4 sendok teh, rebus dengan api kecil, minumkan airnya 1 sendok teh satu jam sekali, untuk mengusir gas perutnya ditapeli dengan parutan bawang merah yang diberi minyak telon, untuk anak yang sudah agak besar boleh juga dengan mengunyah halus pucuk jambu biji yang sudah dibersihkan dan ditambah garam lalu ditelan.
*Batuk
Sediakan air jeruk nipis 1 sendok makan ditambah madu 2 sendok makan dan air matang 2 sendok makan, kemudian masukkan dalam cangkir dan kukus, setelah dingin minumkan pada anak sebanyak 1-2 sendok teh 5 kali sehari.
*Batuk seratus hari
Umbi bidara upas 1/2 jempol dibersihkan, parut dan seduh dengan air panas lalu aduk-aduk dan didinginkan, saring dan tambahkan sedikit madu, minum sampai habis, buatlah ramuan ini 3 kali sehari, bisa juga menggunakan ramuan lidah buaya yaitu lidah buaya dikupas kulitnya dan diambil dagingnya sebanyak dua jari, kemudian dicacah, tambahkan air hangat dan madu lalu minumkan pada anak 1-2 kali sehari.
*Batuk karena angin atau dahak susah keluar
Sediakan 1 butir bawang merah diparut, 1 ruas jari jahe diparut dan diperas airnya, 7 butir adas manis, 1 ruas jari kunyit diparut dan diperas airnya, 1 sendok makan air jeruk nipis dan 1/2 gelas air. Masukkan semua bahan ke dalam cangkir, kemudian kukus dan saring, diminum 3 kali sehari masing-masing 2 sendok teh.
*Batuk berlendir
Campurkan air jahe 1 sendok makan, air kunyit 1 sendok makan, bawang putih 1 siung diparut, air jeruk nipis 1 sendok makan, madu 1 sendok makan dam 3 sendok makan air matang, kemudian dikukus, diminumkan 3-4 kali sehari 2 sendok teh.
*Pilek
Siapkan bawang merah yang diparut lalu tapelkan ditengkuk leher dan ubun-ubun anak yang sebelumnya diolesi minyak kayu putih, beri juga minuman yang hangat, jemur di matahari pagi dibawah jam 9 pagi, panaskan bagian dada dan punggung anak.
*Mata bintitan
Ambil getah dari batang tanaman patikan kebo atau getah dari batang pohon meniran, tempelkan sedikit pada kapas, lalu oleskan pada bagian bintitnya sedikit saja jangan sampai terkena mata.
*Mata merah
Taruh 3 lembar daun sirih yang sudah dicuci bersih pada wadah mangkok, seduh dengan air panas, setelah dingin, kedip-kedipkan mata dalam air tersebut.
*Sariawan
Ambil sebuah tomat matang, seduh dengan air panas dan kupas kulitnya, haluskan tomat tersebut dengan sendok, saring dan tambahkan sedikit gula kemudian diminumkan ke anak.
*Tak nafsu makan
Biasanya karena cacingan, caranya : bersihkan 1 buah daun jarak pagar, hangatkan sebentar di atas tutup panci, beli olesan minyak kelapa pada daun tersebut dan dipilin, tempelkan daun tersebut di atas pusar anak yang sebelumnya sudah diolesi minyak telon.
Bila usia anak lebih dari 1 tahun coba beri ramuan 1 telapak tangan daun pepaya, 1 ruas jari temu ireng, seruas jari tempe bosokdan sedikit garam, kemudian semua bahan ditumbuk halus, peras dengan kain dan masukkan ke mulut anak.
Untuk menambah nafsu makan anak yaitu dengan ramuan 1 ruas jari temulawak, gula merah, air secukupnya dan sedikit garam, kemudian rebus dan saring, minumkan pada anak 1-2 sendok makan sehari.
Berikut resep obat tradisional yang disalin sebuah milis:
* Asma
10 siung bawang putih diparut ditambah 1 gelas madu , kemudian dikukus, berikan pada anak sebanyak 1 sendok teh, dua kali sehari atau bisa juga madu diganti dengan 1 ons gula batu direbus dengan 1 gelas air.
*Luka-luka berdarah
Cuci bersih daun jambu biji kemudian remas-remas, tempelkan pada luka tersebut, darah akan berhenti segera.
*Biduran atau kaligata
Balurkan tubuh dengan minyak telon/minyak kayu putih/minyak tawon.
Untuk ramuan minum: 1 jari temulawak dipotong-potong ditambah sedikit gula merah dan garam, direbus dengan segelas air, saring dan bila sudah dingin diminumkan 3 kali sehari 1/4 gelas.
*Mimisan
Selembar daun sirih yang sudah dicuci dipilin dan disumpalkan ke hidung anak, untuk ramuan minum: 1/2 jempol umbi bidara upas yang sudah bersih diparut dan diseduh dengan 1 cangkir air panas, disaring dan setelah dingin ditambah sedikit madu diminumkan ke anak.
*Benjol karena benturan
Rendam 1 sendok makan beras, tumbuk bersama kencur, beri sedikit garam setelah halus tempelkan pada bagian yang benjol. Atau dapat juga diberi ramuan: bawang putih diparut diberi sedikit madu dan dioleskan dibagian yang benjol.
*Keringat buntet
Tepung kanji yang disangrai dibedakkan pada badan anak sesering mungkin.
*Congekan
Cuci bersih 3 lembar daun miana atau 7 lembar daun sambiloto segar atau lengkuas merah muda lalu tumbuk halus, peras dengan kain bersih dan teteskan air perasannya ke telinga, lakukan 2 kali sehari masing-masing 3 tetes.
*Panu
2Jari lengkuas merah diparut dan diberi sedikit cuka, oleskan pagi dan sore/malam pada bagian tubuh yang berpanu.
*Koreng atau borok kepala
Batang brotowali dipotong sepanjang 5 jari, direbus dengan sedikit air, oleskan air rebusan pada bagian kepala yang borok. Selain itu dapat juga diberi ramuan daun brotowali, parutan kunyit dan sedikit garam ditumbuk halus, oleskan ke kepala yang borok.
*Sakit gigi
Bawang putih diparut ditambah sedikit garam kemudian disumpalkan ke gigi yang sakit karena berlubang.
*Digigit nyamuk
Hilangkan bekas gigitan nyamuk dengan tanaman sambiloto yang diremas-remas dan dioleskan ke bagian bekas gigitan, selain itu dapat juga menggunakan minyak sereh.
*Penurun panas, batuk dan pilek
Parut bawang merah tambahkan minyak telon lalu balurkan pada punggung smapai bagian pantat sambil sedikit diurut, juga pusar dan ubun-ubun. Untuk ramuan minum: air kelapa 1 gelas ditambah 1 sendok teh madu, aduk lalu kukus, setelah dingin berikan pada anak sebanyak 3 sendok teh setiap 2 jam sekali, ramuan ini hanya untuk bayi diatas 8 bulan, untuk dibawah 8 bulan cukup diberi asi saja atau ibunya yang minum ramuan ini. Pada anak yang lebih besar berikan ramuan minum berupa 1 ruas jari kunyit yang bersih dibakar, dikerik kulitnya, diparut lalu diberi air matang 1/2 cangkir, kemudian diperas dan diendapkan, campur bagian air tanpa endapan dengan kocokan 1 butir kuning telur dan 1 sendok makan madu kemudian diminumkan ke anak.
*Perut kembung
Parut bawang merah dan tambahkan minyak telon kemudian tapelkan dibagian pusar, atau dengan cara lain yaitu daun jarak pagar diolesi minyak kelapa,pilin-pilin lalu tempelkan pada pusar anak.
*Diare
1/2 jari kunyit yang bersih dibakar, dipotong-potong, 7 pucuk daun jambu biji, air 2 gelas dan garam 1/4 sendok teh, rebus dengan api kecil, minumkan airnya 1 sendok teh satu jam sekali, untuk mengusir gas perutnya ditapeli dengan parutan bawang merah yang diberi minyak telon, untuk anak yang sudah agak besar boleh juga dengan mengunyah halus pucuk jambu biji yang sudah dibersihkan dan ditambah garam lalu ditelan.
*Batuk
Sediakan air jeruk nipis 1 sendok makan ditambah madu 2 sendok makan dan air matang 2 sendok makan, kemudian masukkan dalam cangkir dan kukus, setelah dingin minumkan pada anak sebanyak 1-2 sendok teh 5 kali sehari.
*Batuk seratus hari
Umbi bidara upas 1/2 jempol dibersihkan, parut dan seduh dengan air panas lalu aduk-aduk dan didinginkan, saring dan tambahkan sedikit madu, minum sampai habis, buatlah ramuan ini 3 kali sehari, bisa juga menggunakan ramuan lidah buaya yaitu lidah buaya dikupas kulitnya dan diambil dagingnya sebanyak dua jari, kemudian dicacah, tambahkan air hangat dan madu lalu minumkan pada anak 1-2 kali sehari.
*Batuk karena angin atau dahak susah keluar
Sediakan 1 butir bawang merah diparut, 1 ruas jari jahe diparut dan diperas airnya, 7 butir adas manis, 1 ruas jari kunyit diparut dan diperas airnya, 1 sendok makan air jeruk nipis dan 1/2 gelas air. Masukkan semua bahan ke dalam cangkir, kemudian kukus dan saring, diminum 3 kali sehari masing-masing 2 sendok teh.
*Batuk berlendir
Campurkan air jahe 1 sendok makan, air kunyit 1 sendok makan, bawang putih 1 siung diparut, air jeruk nipis 1 sendok makan, madu 1 sendok makan dam 3 sendok makan air matang, kemudian dikukus, diminumkan 3-4 kali sehari 2 sendok teh.
*Pilek
Siapkan bawang merah yang diparut lalu tapelkan ditengkuk leher dan ubun-ubun anak yang sebelumnya diolesi minyak kayu putih, beri juga minuman yang hangat, jemur di matahari pagi dibawah jam 9 pagi, panaskan bagian dada dan punggung anak.
*Mata bintitan
Ambil getah dari batang tanaman patikan kebo atau getah dari batang pohon meniran, tempelkan sedikit pada kapas, lalu oleskan pada bagian bintitnya sedikit saja jangan sampai terkena mata.
*Mata merah
Taruh 3 lembar daun sirih yang sudah dicuci bersih pada wadah mangkok, seduh dengan air panas, setelah dingin, kedip-kedipkan mata dalam air tersebut.
*Sariawan
Ambil sebuah tomat matang, seduh dengan air panas dan kupas kulitnya, haluskan tomat tersebut dengan sendok, saring dan tambahkan sedikit gula kemudian diminumkan ke anak.
*Tak nafsu makan
Biasanya karena cacingan, caranya : bersihkan 1 buah daun jarak pagar, hangatkan sebentar di atas tutup panci, beli olesan minyak kelapa pada daun tersebut dan dipilin, tempelkan daun tersebut di atas pusar anak yang sebelumnya sudah diolesi minyak telon.
Bila usia anak lebih dari 1 tahun coba beri ramuan 1 telapak tangan daun pepaya, 1 ruas jari temu ireng, seruas jari tempe bosokdan sedikit garam, kemudian semua bahan ditumbuk halus, peras dengan kain dan masukkan ke mulut anak.
Untuk menambah nafsu makan anak yaitu dengan ramuan 1 ruas jari temulawak, gula merah, air secukupnya dan sedikit garam, kemudian rebus dan saring, minumkan pada anak 1-2 sendok makan sehari.
Jumat, 01 Agustus 2008
Rekaman pembicaraan terakhir tragedi Adam Air
Sungguh merinding mendengar rekaman ini, terlepas entah ini benar atau tidak setidaknya kita dapat mengingat hidup dan mati adalah kehendakNya.
Berikut ini adalah rekaman pembicaraan terakhir tragedi pesawat terbang ADAM AIR sebelum kecelakaan.
Format : MP3
Length : 5:38 mins
Download :
http://rapidshare.com/files/133961819/Rekaman_Adam_Air.mp3
Berikut ini adalah rekaman pembicaraan terakhir tragedi pesawat terbang ADAM AIR sebelum kecelakaan.
Format : MP3
Length : 5:38 mins
Download :
http://rapidshare.com/files/133961819/Rekaman_Adam_Air.mp3
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Postingan (Atom)