About children
And a woman with a child in her arms came closer and said: Talk to us about children
And he answered:
"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of the desire of Life, anxiously waiting to perpetuate.
You are the ones that conceive them, but they’re not yours. And although they are with you, they don’t belong to you. You can give them your love; not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.
You can shelter their bodies; not their souls. For their souls live in the house of the future, closed to you, closed even to your dreams.
You may try to be like them, but don’t try to make them like you, because life doesn’t go back nor does it tarry at yesterday.
You are the bow from which your children are launched, as living arrows, into the distance.
The Archer is the one that sees the goal on the path of the Infinite, and it is He who bows you with His power that His arrow may go swift and far. Enjoy letting your tension be adjusted by the Archer. Because the way He loves the flying arrow, He also loves the tensing bow."
From "The prophet" – by Gibran Jalil Gibran.