Probably Nothing to Do with Anything

None of these next words are mine, but they are all amazing.
And if you are a parent, you know exactly how amazing they are.

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, 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 bow 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 arrow may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's band be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
--Kahlil Gibran

-bill kenny