day 20 ... Loving Your Beloved

day 20 ...  now we're getting somewhere -- loving your beloved

this meditation is a beautiful promise of the type of love I'm looking to create with the man who will become my beloved

In the meditation there is reference to Kahlil Jibran's words from the book Prophet (which I own because Cassandra is a prophetess in greek mythology) and this resonated with me

Love has no other desire but to fulfill 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.


This is one of his more famous work... his lyrical prose which has become a staple of secular weddings and one that I'm also quite fond of...

ON MARRIAGE
Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
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.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Centering Thought for Today:
"I am ready to surrender to the sacred love within me and within you."

Welcome to Day 20 - Loving Your Beloved

For today's meditation, we will look at the concept of sacred love: the exquisite, blissful state that comes to us when we love from the pureness of our spirit. It is this purity of mind and heart that draws more and more love to us. In The Path to Love, Deepak Chopra reveals the qualities of sacred love. He writes, "You and your beloved are walking a path never walked in exactly the same way by anyone else who has ever lived. You do not take a breath, think a thought, have a wisp of feeling that existed before, and the intimacy you build together will never be known again."

Deepak Chopra teaches two powerful lessons: pure love is always inclusive, and other people, particularly those closest to us, are perfect mirrors of our Self. We will contemplate these concepts today. The essence of sacred love is described by the poet Rumi, "This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life, finally, to take a step without feet."

"The manifestations of love will multiply because my lover will become sacred to me; 

that is why love is called holy, because it expresses wholeness."
—Deepak Chopra