Children
 

After the last few weeks this piece from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran has been on my mind a lot.

"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."
Khalil Gibran

Re: Children
 

Gibran was light years ahead of his time. Whether it was his overall intelligence or his worldliness from having travelled so much his insight and foresight were mind boggling.

His views on world religions, and the direction he thought they needed to go as well as his views on Middle Eastern politics.... he could have been a Ghandi to The Lebanon if he'd taken up the offer to return.

And then there's his poetry, his general musings and his paintings... in another time he could have been a Da Vinci.

Re: Children
 

The Prophet is one of my favourite books Bri, having been with me for around 30 years now. A short book, skimmable in 20 minutes, but after 30 years I still find new understandings in his writing each time I read it.