Waxing Poetic

Many many a year ago...meaning the summer of 2005, I went into a bookshop in teeny tiny little Cadiz, Kentucky by the name of Eldora's Books. I spent a good $175 in her store that summer. Incidentally, I happened upon some of the best books I've ever read: Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady and The Bell Jar are two. Also, the woman who owns/runs the shop turned me onto a book that I wouldn't have ever chosen for myself, but has had a (dare I say?) profound effect upon my life. Am I religious? Well...uh...er...
...anyway, the woman suggested The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran to me. She and her husband had used verses from "On Marriage" as their wedding vows. To be honest, I wasn't particularly interested in the book and I only bought it because it was $10 and the woman seemed so earnest. 
I am so glad I capitulated. 
This book has assuaged more pain and answered more questions than any therapist. Ever.
And so, now, here's his bit about children...




On Children
 Kahlil Gibran
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.

Incredible? Maybe not for the non-breeders, but for those of us who have (bred), it does a  bit to illuminate the overwhelming profundity of parenthood.