Notes
On Children
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)