Freedom

And the orator said, Speak to us of Freedom, And he answered; At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom, Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them. Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear freedom as a yoke and a handcuff. And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment. You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care and your nights without want and grief, But when these thing girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound. And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around the noon hour? In truth, that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzled your eyes. And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard so that you may become free? If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your own law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour sea upon them. And if it was a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne that was erected within you was destroyed. For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for the tyranny in their own freedom and the shame in their own pride? And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you. And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your own heart and not at the hand of the feared. Verily all thing move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape. These thing move within you as lights and shadows that cling. And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light. And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom. Kahlil Gibran

Wake up family!  I’d like to thank my long time friend SeaPrayer for posting this video link.

Peace, Tenthltr2u

#KahlilGibran #Poetry