One Of My FAV Poems About Parenting & Children
By: Kahlil Gibran
‘ON CHILDREN’
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 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.
From The Prophet (Knopf, 1923). This poem is in the public domain.
What was your impression of this poem?
This poem has always served as a reminder that my children are their own beings and while I am important within their lives, they too are sovereign and I must be strong and skilled enough as a parent to help them soar!
AYYYY, sounds so much easier than it is.
I will admit that I fail miserably at times yet in other moments I wonder how I am able to glide through with such grace…
G R A C E…That is a word and the place that I recommend all parents to work from.
Grace, because you will need it. Grace, because our children deserve it!
This is the part that always makes me tear up; no seriously it does…lol!
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.
I LOVE that it reminds me that the Creator is always present, guiding both us parents and the children.
It recognizes that parenting is a symbiotic relationship, with the divine, parent and child.
It highlights the importance of trusting in ‘the creator’ and acknowledges that parents need to create a strong and stable foundation for children as they are raising them to one day take flight or ‘aka’ leave the nest!
Sighhhh…
You ever just stop and review the many ways a poem or a writing has helped to raise you? I have been reading this poem for most of my children’s lives. At different stages understanding an element in a different way according to the point of the path that I was at.
Now that I am at the ‘cutting cords’ ‘leaving the nest’ stage this poem once again hits my soul in a different way. Its a conundrum really, a painful gratitude!
Painful because cutting them cords is R O U G H! Your mind and your soul knows its the right thing but everything within your physicality is saying this is wrong!
Gratitude because I am so proud of them and am excited to witness and support their next stages even if it does not involve me quite as much!
Thank You FAM for spending time w/ me on Literature Tuesday…CIAO, Alex!
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