Just What I Needed

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 Prophet Khalil Gibran

 

This reading was part of the worship service this morning on the theme of letting go.  "Letting go" is the theme for March and I think it's a good one, at least for someone like me.  Someone who is not so good with letting go.  These words were just what I needed this morning.

I particularly like the idea of bending in the hands of the archer.  Well, I don't like bending, but the idea resonates.  It's true.  Bending is the way of things and certainly the way of parenting.  I might as well let my bending be for gladness.  Working on that.....

Posted in: Six Months, The Rest of Life