You may ask, my brother, when will man reach perfection. Hear my answer:

Man approaches perfection when he feels that he is an infinite space and a sea without a shore.

An everlasting fire, an unquenchable light,

A calm wind or a raging tempest, a thundering sky or a rainy heaven.

A singing brook or a wailing rivulet, a tree abloom in Spring, or a naked sapling in Autumn.

A rising mountain or a descending valley,
A  fertile plain or a desert.

When man feels all these, he has already reached halfway to perfection. To attain his goal he must then perceive that he is a child dependent upon his mother,

A father responsible for his family,

A youth lost in love,

An ancient wrestling against his past,

A worshipper in his temple, a criminal in his prison,

A scholar amidst his parchments,

An ignorant soul stumbling between the darkness of his night and the obscurity of his day,

A nun suffering between the flowers of her faith and the thistles of her loneliness.

A prostitute caught between the fangs of her weakness and the claws of her needs,

A poor man trapped between his bitterness and his submission,

A rich man between his greed and his conscience,

A poet between the mist of his twilight and the rays of his dawn.

Who can experience, see, and understand these things can reach perfection and become a shadow of the God's shadow.

Kahlil Gibran
(1883-1931)