there's something in a shade of grey...

When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions
May wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
As the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you
so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth
So is he for your pruning.

The Prophet
by Gibran Khalil Gibran

::

Love is such an inadeqate word... covers a multitude of graces and sins...when we say i love you we so often mean such different things... over time the quality of what we mean can strengthen, weaken, transform... but the words stay the same and the subtlety of meaning goes unnoticed...
when we hear the words, we hear what we want to hear, which is not what is always intended. and when we utter those same words, we so often mean something other than what the hearer will hear...it can conceal far more than it reveals...tricks us as much as it seals us...

three little words perpetually binding us in our unrequitedness of being human...

LB,x