Reflections in the Library

 To know love, one must first know the pain of love...
 To have love, one must love themselves above all others...
 To give love, one must know the joy of selflessness...
 If you didn't hurt...you wouldn't know joy...
 If you didn't hate...you wouldn't know love...
 If you didn't cry...you would not be smiling now...
 Ying and yang...the eternal circle...
 Only by knowing all sides, can you be free...
 Only by looking through another's eyes...
 feeling their pain, their suffering...
 can you feel their love...their joy...
 and return that love and joy a thousandfold...
 with laughter and with compassion...
 If I had never traveled through the dark pits of my own mind...
 I would not have seen the universe in it's infinite splendor...
 Nor would I have marveled at the blade of grass...
 or the ant traveling upon it...to it's home...
 If I had never seen the desert, dry and sere...
 I would not have seen the heavens ablaze with galaxies...
 If I had never seen through a dragon's eyes...
 I would not have known how to soar with rapture...
 how to listen with my heart, or see with my mind...
 If I had never looked into my children's eyes...
 I would never have seen my own mortality...
 And if I had never looked into your soul...
 I would never have seen my own...reflected...