Of 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.