Frank Carucci - Traditional Reiki Master-Teacher

12/22/2025

12/19/2025

Kahlil Gibran became famous in the United States. He built his wealth there. He became a star there. Yet he never forgot where he came from. He never lost touch with the mountain town that shaped his earliest years. It showed in his writings, in his themes, in his longing for simplicity and rootedness. And when he died, he made sure that the world would never forget his home either.

At the age of 48, Kahlil Gibran lay dying in St. Vincent Hospital in New York. He asked for a sheet of paper. On it, he scribbled a one-page will that shocked everyone. He bequeathed the royalties from seven of his books to the people of Bsharri, his hometown in Lebanon. It was his final act of gratitude.

To make sure nothing would interfere with this desire, he also instructed his family and friends that he wanted to be buried in that same town. He had been planning this quietly for years. His plan was simple. He wanted to purchase a monastery and convert it into his final resting place, a monument to the place that raised him.

A few days after writing his will, he died.

His sister, Mariana Gibran, carried out his wishes with unwavering devotion. She purchased the monastery and ensured Gibran was buried there. Today, that building is the Gibran Museum. It holds his remains and over 400 pieces of his work. It welcomes more than fifty thousand visitors every year, who climb the mountains of Lebanon to pay respect to the man whose words traveled farther than he ever did.

But the most remarkable part of this story is not the museum. It is what his gift has done for the people of Bsharri.

At first, the royalties from his books were small, only a few hundred dollars. But as The Prophet and his other works became global classics, the income grew. Today, the royalties reach about three hundred thousand dollars a year. Three hundred thousand dollars a year flowing into a tiny town of just over twenty thousand people.

And that money has transformed lives.

More than two thousand children from Bsharri have received scholarships to study in schools and universities. A music academy now trains children in an art Gibran loved. Several primary and secondary schools have been built through the fund. Entire generations have been lifted because one man refused to forget the soil that birthed him.

Gibran’s story is a powerful reminder. Success does not have to disconnect you from home. Wealth does not have to blind you to where your journey began. He climbed as high as any immigrant writer could climb. Yet at the end of his life, he turned back toward the mountains of Bsharri and said, in essence, Everything I have, everything I have become, should bless the place that shaped me.

There are many ways to succeed. But there is a special kind of greatness in remembering your beginnings, honoring them, and making sure others rise because of you.

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"Aquamarine" by Maxfield Parrish

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Late Autumn Light |📷: Mitch Crispe 🌲🍂

💚 this & want to see more? You can follow Mitch's photography page: www.facebook.com/mitch.charlie1/ & you can find more of his beautiful work over on his website: www.wildcoast.photography

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Yosemite National Park in California 😍

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