Money is infinitely renewable. Time is not...

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. - Nelson Mandela

Hi team

This week I'm reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

'I recommend the prophet to anybody, whether you’re religious or not. Whether you are Christian, Hindu, Jewish, or Atheist. I think it’s a beautiful book, and it’s worth reading.' - Naval Ravikant (How to Get Rich without getting lucky etc. from last week)

Earlier this year I first read the second hand copy of The Prophet my mum had given me. I wanted to put that quote from Naval up front as when she first recommended it I turned my nose up at it thinking it sounded "too religious"... Glad I'm past that... I guess the question, before reading anything now is 'is there wisdom to be found here or is someone trying to brainwash me?'. It can still be useful to read things where someone is trying to brainwash you of course, but in the case of The Prophet it's pure wisdom. (Although it's not non-fiction which means false advertising on deliaburgess.blog.)

Here's what else Naval has to say about it:

This book reads like a modern-day poetic religious tome. It’s up there with the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the Bible, and the Qur’an. It is written in the style where it has a feel of religiosity and truth, but it was very approachable, beautiful, non-denominational, and non-sectarian. I loved this book.

He has a gift for poetically describing what children are like, what lovers are like, what marriage should be like, how you should treat your enemies and your friends, how you should work with money, what can you think of every time you have to kill something to eat it. I felt, like the great religious books, it gave a very deep, very philosophical, but very true answer to how to approach the major problems in life. I recommend The Prophet to anybody, whether you’re religious or not. Whether you are Christian, Hindu, Jewish, or Atheist. I think it’s a beautiful book, and it’s worth reading.

And here's what Penguin tells us on the back of my copy:

"First published in the 1920's, The Prophet is perhaps the most famous work of religious fiction of the twentieth century, and has sold millions of copies in more than twenty languages. Gibran's Prophet speaks of many things central to daily life: love, marriage, death, beauty, passion, eating, work and play. The spiritual message he imparts, of finding divinity through love, blends eastern mysticism, religious faith and philosophy with simple advice. The Prophet became the bible of 1960s culture and was credited with founding the New Age movement, yet it still continues to inspire people around the world today."

The author, Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese poet and philosopher born in 1883 in a Maronite Christian mountain village.

Here are some passages that are standing out to me today, and that I hope you'll find meaningful...

The premise is:
​"Almustafa, the chosen and the beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day, had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese for his ship that was to return and bear him back to the isle of his birth."

And on his way to leave the people of Orphalese surround him and ask him questions about life, death, marriage, work, love etc. And it's a super quick read. Okay! Let's get into it:

On relationships:
​And what of Marriage, master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, 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.

On children:
​And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

On work:
​Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.
And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that maries in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart he whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret. ​
...
​Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better than you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

On the Growing Up podcast this week:

Ep. 21 - Daniel Constable: cocaine addiction, domestic abuse, recovery and finding his purpose
Ep. 20 - Bryan Kam: how to stop suffering

Episode 21 is a very special conversation. It's pretty heavy and explicit content so please be aware of this if you are going to listen.

I wish I had more energy for you guys this week! I want to tell you the backstory of how Episode 21 came to be, my adventure to the Kent coast to record, the cold water swim, the house Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from etc.

The truth is I've fallen into a depressive slump again, and massively lacking in energy. Really annoying to be honest! I feel kind of hypocritical because The Prophet is talking about putting love into your work. Usually I put a lot of love into this newsletter but I'm at that point again where I'm struggling to find joy in anything. The good news is that I have this platform to hold myself accountable (hope no one minds). I'm going to start with the basics... Jordan Peterson's clean your room / put your house in order vibes. Will report back next week...
​
xx Delia

​deliaburgess.blog​
​Listen to Growing Up with Delia Burgess on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts

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