It's All in the Perspective!

I found this poem on FaceBook today. I have no idea what the proper title of it is. Maybe someone out there can clue me in. Anyway, as often happens, when I found this it touched a heart string and gave me an inner thrill. I think too many parents have not considered this perspective. I’ve spoken before about how bad things have happened in my life but, when I was able to look back on them, they were the things that helped me grow and become a better, stronger person. I had parents who pushed really hard for me to go in a direction that they had chosen for me. It was a battle to be myself and do my own thing. I think that is a lot of why I have always encouraged my children to follow THEIR dreams! This poem speaks to that. Your children are not your children. They are 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 also loves the bow that is stable. ― Khalil Gibran