Speak to Us Of Children
                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 through 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 the bow that is stable.
 

                           from The Prophet
                            by Kahil Gibran