Time

by Khalil Gibran

Time 

And an astronomer said, "Master, what of Time?" 

And he answered: 

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable. 

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons. 

Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. 

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness, 

And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream. 

And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space. 

Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless? 

And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not form love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds? 

And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless? 

But if in you thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, 

And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing. 

The Two Hermits 

Upon a lonely mountain, there lived two hermits who worshipped God

and loved one another.

Now these two hermits had one earthen bowl, and this was their only

possession.

One day an evil spirit entered into the heart of the older hermit

and he came to the younger and said, 'It is long that we have

lived together. The time has come for us to part. Let us divide

our possessions.'

Then the younger hermit was saddened and he said, 'It grieves

me, Brother, that thou shouldst leave me. But if thou must needs

go, so be it,' and he brought the earthen bowl and gave it to him

saying, 'We cannot divide it, Brother, let it be thine.'

Then the older hermit said, 'Charity I will not accept. I will

take nothing but mine own. It must be divided.'

And the younger one said, 'If the bowl be broken, of what use would

it be to thee or to me? If it be thy pleasure let us rather cast

a lot.'

But the older hermit said again, 'I will have but justice and mine

own, and I will not trust justice and mine own to vain chance. The

bowl must be divided.'

Then the younger hermit could reason no further and he said, 'If

it be indeed thy will, and if even so thou wouldst have it let us

now break the bowl.'

But the face of the older hermit grew exceedingly dark, and he

cried, 'O thou cursed coward, thou wouldst not fight.' 

On Religion 

And an old priest said, 'Speak to us of Religion.' 

And he said: 

Have I spoken this day of aught else? 

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection, 

And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom? 

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations? 

Who can spread his hours before him, saying, 'This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?' 

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self. 

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked. 

The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin. 

And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage. 

The freest song comes not through bars and wires. 

And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn. 

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. 

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all. 

Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute, 

The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight. 

For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures. 

And take with you all men: 

For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair. 

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles. 

Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. 

And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain. 

You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.