This past week I was surprised by an email from a former student of mine who I had taught in Senior Kindergarten and Grade 1, 14 years ago. She is now in her 2nd year of university and was in the same city as me and she wondered if we could meet. We had a fun-filled and lively lunch and a thrift store visit for several hours and talked non-stop. We both were so excited and happy to see each other. It was wonderful to hear the influence I had on her as a teacher, even at such a young age. She has grown into a very outgoing, confident young woman. One never knows the direction children may grow as they mature into adults. We plan on seeing each other again.
On Children by Kahlil Gibran
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.
From The Prophet (Knopf, 1923). This poem is in the public domain.