Children

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,
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.

Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet