Excerpt: "While not the exact opposite, my original plan for this essay was to write about the Dark Night of the Soul. I had already selected a wonderful Michael Meade quote from his most recent episode of Living Myth. But while I was sitting in my chair next to the bookshelf, Gibran’s little book of aphorism, poems, and fables caught my eye.

I turned a couple of pages and saw a line that fit in so well with my intended theme.

It said, “One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night” (p. 8).

What an amazing connection!

But when I began to write, it was as if Kahlil wanted to say something, something timeless. He said, “Give me an ear and I will give you a voice” (p. 12).

So I did, and he quickly reminded me that “The voice of life within me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely” (15).

In the reminder, I felt his presence since “Remembrance is a form of meeting” (p.6). And how incredibly profound, because on my city walk with Iris tonight what I felt more than anything was the sense of being lonely."