Antidote
From Avus, an antidote.
ON CHILDREN
An excerpt from "The Prophet" by 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 sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but are 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.
ON CHILDREN
An excerpt from "The Prophet" by 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 sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but are 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.
Posted by Zhoen on Wednesday, January 13, 2010
8 comments:
I love this. Thanks for reminding me. It will keep me warm for a bit.
den,
Yeah, sorry about the previous post. Not that I'm retracting it, but it needed to be balanced out.
Thanks Zhoen and thanks Dad.
nice, thanks for sharing it, I hadn't seen this before.
Hmm, gets me where it hurts, that. I am currently having great difficulty letting go of my children. I mean, I have let go. I just don't want to...
But I do think I have unconditional love for them.
I love the Larkin too. And it's so true. I wished I had come across it years ago.
The Gibran reminds me to step back, that it will be O.K for them.
"They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself".
This so powerfully sums up my sons last days. And because I can't possibly leave a glum.
And have a warped sense of humor.
Definition of
Mind-set: The full two matching hemispheres of the brain. (So far, only available in grey.)
Oh I have just learnt I must put . inside ( ) then.
And for the record I think unconditional love can be a challenge some of us fail to meet.
Yep I am defiately rabbit mode sorry.
"Congratulations, you initiated a self-sustaining chemical process that results in a conscious being. Now let go of it."
Thank you for posting this, Zhoen.
When my parents married in 1948, one of their wedding gifts was a copy of The Prophet. When I was a child, I used to look at the mysterious ethereal pictures and wonder about the book. When I was in high school, I finally read the book and was surprised to find how clearly it spoke to me and my questions about life. After a disagreement with my mother, I asked my mother if I could read to her something that was important to me. We went out on the back porch and I read "ON CHILDREN" to her. I believe she understood that I didn't belong to her in the way I had before.
My favorite lines are:
Your children are not your children,
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
and:
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
Have you heard this arrangement by Sweet Honey in the Rock?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srm2QtsqUyM
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