On Children
By: Kahlil Gibran
The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
— Kahlil Gibran
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 inspiration to millions of people, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran is widely considered to be a masterpiece of spiritual poetry. This book contains all twelve original drawings Gibran created specifically for The Prophet upon its first publication.
I read both biographies of Gibran, one written by his American lover and secretary, one by a Lebanon man, both excellent. In one, I don't recall which, it was reported that Gibran wrote The Prophet when he was young, maybe around 20?, and his mother told him to tuck it away until he was older, and that's what he did. These verses about Children are is priceless and ageless, and ignored nearly universally by parents. In the Gospels are incidents where Jesus had to deal with his mother. At the wedding, he succumbed to her nagging him to make more wine out of water. Later, when he was teaching a crowed, a disciple told him his mother and his brothers had come to see him, and he looked at the crowed and said something like: Who are his mother and his brothers? They are those who do the will of God." He kept talking to the crowd. What did that say about what he thought about his mother and his brothers' relationship with God? In another passage, he said no man can be his disciple who does not hate his father and his mother and his children and even his own life - God has to come first, always.
Love this book. I’ve had it since my 20’s. This entry reminds me they I need to revisit. Thank you.