On Children
And a woman who held a babe against her
bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:
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.
...An excerpt from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
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