Setting Our Children Free
Pause to Ponder
Today’s short Pause to Ponder post features wisdom from the wise Lebanese-American writer, poet and artist, Kahlil Gibran. It’s from his book “The Prophet,” which was published in 1923 and has sold over 100 million copies worldwide.
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.
—Kahlil Gibran
Take a Moment Micro-Meditation
Tiny pauses to be right here, right now can have big results. Visit and bookmark our library of twenty Take a Moment micro-meditations—all under two minutes long—that make taking mindful pauses as easy as possible. We invite you to "Take a Moment" to find the calm that is always within you.
