Children...

Children...

By the Prophet Kahlil Gibran

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 son's and daughter's of
Life's longing for itself.

They came 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
to-morrow, 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
the bow that is stable.
****************************

I'm sharing this today because I'm thinking of...
Love's longing for itself through the children
who are born into our Earthly families...
 
Kahlil Gibran came to mind...what he pens
so resonates within me that I've been reading
this excerpt for days now.
 
We have a huge responsibility in 'allowing'
our children to be 'the ultimate and truest
sense of Love's longing for itself.  How
else can we guide them?
 
As a Mother, Grandmother, Woman,
Daughter, I've learned these life lessons the
hard way, but I learned them my way...
for the babies I bore, for the babies
my Daughter bore, and so I could
feel Love's longing for itself too. 
 
My own Mother crossed through the
veils when I was but eleven, so
as I sat reading Kahlil's words they
washed over me like rain falling
from the opened up skies...I have
been in this place alone for a very
long time and for a very
specific lesson...I thought it was to 
learn about the babies...it's not.
It's to learn about me, my strengths,
my weaknesses, my heart, and if
I have the courage to let go when
I need to. 
 
I'm still learning.