all you need is love

tonight i finally put my thoughts and ideas on paper for the reading for my friend donut's wedding. this was a much more difficult task than i imagined. i was excited at first and poured through books looking for the right words. i don't know if i found them but here are some things i did find. these aren't necessarily in the reading but they're moving just the same.

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.---kahlil
gibran

Love's Philosophy
Percy Bysshe Shelley
the fountains mingle with the river,
and the rivers with the ocean;
the winds of heaven mix forever,
with a sweet emotion;
nothing in the world is single;
all things by a law divine
in one another's being mingle:---
why not i with thine?

see! the mountains kiss high heaven,
and the waves clasp one another;
no sister flower would be forgiven
if it disdained its brother;
and the sunlight clasps the earth,
and the moonbeams kiss the sea:---
what are all these kissings worth,
if thou kiss not me?

Sonnets from the Portuguese XIV
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
if thou must love me, let it be for naught
except for love's sake only. do not say
"i love her for her smile...her look...her way
of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought
that falls in well with mine, and certes brought
a sense of pleasant ease on such a day."

for these things in themselves, beloved, may
be changed, or change for thee,---and love so
wrought,
may be unwrought so. neither love me for
thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,---
a creature might forget to weep, who bore
thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby.
but love me for love's sake, that evermore
thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

On Love - Thomas à Kempis
Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good.
Love alone lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth.
It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable.
Nothing is sweeter than love,
Nothing stronger,
Nothing higher,
Nothing wider,
Nothing more pleasant,
Nothing fuller or better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God.
Love flies, runs and leaps for joy.
It is free and unrestrained.
Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds.
Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil,
attempts things beyond its strength.
Love sees nothing as impossible,
for it feels able to achieve all things.
It is strange and effective,
while those who lack love faint and fail.
Love is not fickle and sentimental,
nor is it intent on vanities.
Like a living flame and a burning torch,
it surges upward and surely surmounts every obstacle.

Excerpt from The Bridge Across Forever - Richard Bach
A soul mate
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 soul mate 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 soul mate is the one who makes life come
to life.