on 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 time-
lessness,
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 from 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 your 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.

Kahlil Gibran