He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. To know the pain of too much tenderness. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.