Your Children Are Not Your Own

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you, but they are not from you. And though they are with you, they do not belong to you.

You may give them your love, but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may shelter their bodies, but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot enter, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but do not seek to make them like you, for life moves forward and does not linger in yesterday. You are the bow from which your children, as living arrows, are sent forth.

The Archer sees the target upon the path of the infinite, and with strength, He bends you, so that His arrows may fly swift and far. Let your bending in the Archer’s hands be with joy, for just as He loves the arrow that flies, so too does He love the bow that is steady.