When Mike was just a baby I became acquainted with the works of Kahlil Gibran. Now, as Mike's birthday approaches, I am reminded. While the children were with me, the words from this masterpiece were ever my companion. Now that they have grown into men, they stir me still.
"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you,
yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love
but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward
nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer�s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."
-Kahlil Gibran on Children from THE PROPHET
Posted by Judi at July 26, 2004 11:02 AM | TrackBack