On Children

There have been profound moments when, smack in the middle of playing with my son, time seems to slow down almost to a stop, and my son looks me right in the eyes, almost as if he can see straight through to my soul, and I realize in this moment that my son is a person separate from me; he is his own being. His eyes, too, become a window into his soul and I understand in that brief, fleeting moment that we are interacting as two individuals. Age is irrelevant, we are connecting spirit to spirit, not simply as mother and child. And then soon enough, time's clock is wound up again, the pace quickens, and we are thrown back into whatever it was we were doing.

My Mother recently suggested I revisit Kahlil Gibran's writing on children from his book, The Prophet. I did and found it timely in light of these spirit connections I've been having with my son. What do you think?

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.