'Gibran'

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 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 enter 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.
From the Wanderer by Kalil Gibran
'Gibran' Original Print by Neil Buddle - Exhibiting at Corban Estate Arts Centre