Thinking about Children

Being a parent

This is a very famous passage about being a parent, from a book called 'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) a poet, philosopher and artist born near Mount Lebanon.

'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.

You may give them your love but not your 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.

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.'