READING THREAD....LET'S START ONE!

here are my contributions.....
Excerpt from: The Bridge Across Forever
Richard Bach
A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.


Love is a good above all other things. Love alone makes every burden light. Love is watchful, and while sleeping still keeps watch; thought fatigued is not weary; though pressed is not forced. Love is sincere, gentle, strong, patient, faithful, prudent, and longsuffering. Love is circumspect, humble, upright; not weary, not fickle, not intent on selfish things. Love is steadfast and quiet. The wise lover values not so much the gifts of the lover as the love of the giver.
~Thomas A. Kempis


The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, contains many appropriate passages, such as the following, which captures the essence of the husband-and-wife union.

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.








THE MEANING OF TRUE LOVE - Thanks Debra Hart
the meaning of true love
it is sharing and caring, giving, and forgiving
love and being loved, walking hand in hand
talking heart to heart
seeing through each others eyes
laughing together, weeping together, praying together
and always trusting and believing
and thanking God for each other
for love that is shared is a beautiful thing
it enriches the soul and makes the heart sing

L o v e
by Roy Croft
I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.


I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.


I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.