~Reason and Passion~

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield,
upon which your reason
and your judgment
wage war against your passion 
and your appetite.  

Would that I could be
the peacemaker in your Soul,
that I might turn the discord 
and rivalry of your elements
into oneness and melody.  

But how shall I,
unless you yourselves
be also the peacemakers, nay,
the lovers of all your elements?  

Your reason and your passion
are the rudder and the sails
of your seafaring Soul.  
If either your sails
or your rudder be broken,
you can but toss or drift,
or else be held at a standstill
in mid-seas.  

For reason, ruling alone,
is a force confining;
and passion, unattended,
is a flame that burns
to its own destruction.  

Therefore  let your Soul
exalt your reason,
that your passion may live
through its own daily resurrection,
and like the phoenix,
rise above its own ashes.  

I would have you consider
your judgment and your appetite
even as you would
two loved guests in your house.  
Surely you would not honor
one guest above the other;
for he who is more mindful of one
loses the love and the faith of both.  

Among the hills,
when you sit in the cool shade
of the white poplars,
sharing the peace and serenity
of distant fields and meadows
then let your heart say in silence,
~God rests in reason~

And when the storm comes,
and the mighty wind shakes the forest,
and thunder and lightning
proclaim the majesty of the sky -
then let your heart say in awe,
~God moves in passion~. 

And since you
are a breath in God`s sphere,
and a leaf in God`s forest,
you too should rest in reason
and move in passion.

Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet

~We shall be known by the tracks we leave behind ~