And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, 'Speak to us of Children.' <br /> <br />And he said: <br /> <br />Your children are not your children. <br /> <br />They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. <br /> <br />They come through you but not from you, <br /> <br />And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. <br /> <br />You may give them your love but not your thoughts. <br /> <br />For they have their own thoughts. <br /> <br />You may house their bodies but not their souls, <br /> <br />For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. <br /> <br />You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. <br /> <br />For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. <br /> <br />You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; <br /> <br />For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.<br /><br />Khalil Gibran<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/children-2/
