On Children by Kahlil Gibran

 

Immediately when I read this poem I was touched by it.
I was 16 or 17. 
It felt like I was telling my mother she should have been more careful with me.

When I was pregnant with my first child I reread my small booklet with poems that were important to me and decided this would be a poem for the baptism of the baby and every baby I would receive.

It's a symbol of respect for my children.
The wish to guide them but not determine them.

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.

from the book:
The Prophet

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About **Syl

Syl: "Life is a chain of challenges. Sometimes the largest challenges are we ourselves. Facing life, facing others and facing yourself requires either a worryless attitude or plain courage. Most of the time it is dealing with judgement. Maybe life is about getting rid of it."