Nonreligious Readings

True love is a sacred flame That burns eternally, And none can dim its special glow Or change its destiny. True love speaks in tender tones And hears with gentle ear, True love gives with open heart And true love conquers fear. True love makes no harsh demands It neither rules nor binds, [...]

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Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will [...]

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I have been here before, But when or how I cannot tell; I know the grass beyond the door, The sweet keen smell, The sighing sound, the lights around the shore. You have been mine before, How long ago I may not know: But just when at that swallow's soar Your neck turned so, Some veil did [...]

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She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace [...]

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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate... When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! It is an ever-fix'd mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, [...]

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Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone. To have a deep soul relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively. But God to the Christian says, "No, not until you're satisfied and fulfilled and content with living, loved by Me alone and giving yourself totally and [...]

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Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence, without you moving, slicing the noon like a blue flower, without you walking later through the fog and the cobbles, without the light you carry in your hand, golden, which maybe others will not see, which maybe no one knew was growing like [...]

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My true love hath my heart and I have his, By just exchange one for another given I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss, There never was a better bargain driven My true love hath my heart and I have his. His heart in me keeps him and me in one, My heart in him his thoughts and senses [...]

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When I met you, I had no idea how much my life was about to be changed... but then, how could I have known? A love like ours happens once in a lifetime. You were a miracle to me, the one who was everything I had ever dreamed of, the one I thought existed only in my imagination. And [...]

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The die is cast, come weal, come woe, Two lives are joined together, For better or for worse, the link Which naught but death can sever. The die is cast, come grief, come joy Come richer, or come poorer, If love but binds the mystic tie, Blest is the bridal hour.

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The fountains mingle with the river, And the rivers with the ocean; The winds of heaven mix forever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single: All things by a law divine In another's being mingle-- Why not I with thine? See, the mountains kiss high heaven, And the waves clasp [...]

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Love lives beyond The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew. I love the fond, The faithful, and the true Love lives in sleep, The happiness of healthy dreams Eve's dews may weep, But love delightful seems. 'Tis heard in Spring When light and sunbeams, warm and kind, On angels' wing [...]

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I love you, Not only for what you are, But for what I am When I am with you. I love you, Not only for what You have made of yourself, But for what You are making of me. I love you For the part of me That you bring out; I love you For putting your hand Into my heaped-up heart And [...]

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In love are we made visible As in a magic bath are unpeeled to the sharp pit so long concealed With love's alertness we recognize the soundless whimper of the soul behind the eyes A shaft opens and the timid thing at last leaps to surface with full-spread wing The fingertips of [...]

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How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for [...]

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Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chilliest land, And on the [...]

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You have become mine forever. Yes, we have become partners. I have become yours. Hereafter, I cannot live without you. Do not live without me. Let us share the joys. We are word and meaning, unite. You are thought and I am sound. May the nights be honey-sweet for us. May the mornings be [...]

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Man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowers in summer, and love, but underneath is rock. Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae, older than plasm altogether is the soul underneath. And when, throughout all the wild chaos of love slowly a gem forms, in the[...]

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Two doves meeting in the sky Two loves hand in hand eye to eye Two parts of a loving whole Two hearts and a single soul Two stars shining big and bright Two fires bringing warmth and light Two songs played in perfect tune Two flowers growing into bloom Two Doves gliding in the air Two [...]

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On this earth there is a oneness A rhythmic flow through everything that lives The things with roots and stems and leaves The things with shells and fins and furs The things with wings with which to fly The things that crawl and those that walk Each thing must eat and breath and rest Each [...]

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You are holding up a ceiling with both arms. It is very heavy, but you must hold it up, or else it will fall down on you. Your arms are tired, terribly tired, and, as the day goes on, it feels as if either your arms or the ceiling will soon collapse. But then, unexpectedly, something [...]

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Love.  What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted [...]

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When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at[...]

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But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take…It is indeed a fearful gamble…Because it is the nature of love to [...]

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