The bow that is stable

Kahlil Gibran mousepad

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:
When asked, Speak to us of Children, and he said:

Your children are not your children,
They are the sons and the daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but they 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 archers hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He
Loves the bow that is stable.

(Just heard this read by James Earl Jones on the red ipod. Oooh…)