"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." 

     "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." 

     "Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your 
     understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, 
     that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. 
     And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles 
     of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your 
     joy. And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as 
     you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. 
     And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your 
     grief. Much of your pain is self-chosen." 

    - Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), The Prophet (1924)