"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"
About this Quote
Kahlil Gibran crafts a poetic image of love that embraces both connection and independence. He invites lovers to cherish closeness while allowing room for individuality, suggesting that true intimacy requires a delicate balance. The idea of “spaces in your togetherness” highlights the importance of personal freedom within companionship. Closeness does not require constant presence; rather, love can thrive when each person honors their own identity, passions, and boundaries, fostering mutual respect and a deeper appreciation of the other.
The “winds of the heavens” symbolize inspiration and spirit passing freely between people, refreshing and energizing the relationship. Allowing such winds to dance between two people suggests openness, both welcome and needed for emotional growth and depth. It implies that attempts to possess or hold on too tight can inadvertently stifle the longing and joy that genuine love brings.
Gibran’s counsel to “love one another but make not a bond of love” cautions against possessiveness and the urge to construct constrictive attachments. Love, he suggests, should never be something that binds, obligates, or cages. Instead, it should be dynamic and living, filled with movement, change, and newness. Comparing love to “a moving sea between the shores of your souls” evokes an image of endless, flowing water, ever-present, powerful, and ever-changing, connecting two distinct lands but never eliminating the distance that defines them. The moving sea nurtures both shores, symbolizing how the love between individuals supports and enriches each person without erasing differences.
This vision honors individuality and acknowledges the vitality of personal space. Just as the sea needs room to surge and ebb, love flourishes when it has the freedom to breathe and evolve. Gibran reveals a mature, expansive view of intimacy that values both unity and separateness, recognizing that love’s truest strength lies in respecting, and celebrating, the open spaces that exist within and between us.
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