Indian Names and Parenting

I read Kahlil Gibran’s-The Prophet, a series of philosophical essays written in English. For those of you who haven’t heard of Kahlil Gibran, he was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer. The Prophet is a beautiful book and very deep. Here is what Kahlil Gibran has to say about Children.

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.

Tags: children, Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Here is a beautiful comparison I found between Parenting and a Kite. I don’t know how many of you agree to this… anyways, read on.

You spend years trying to get them off the ground.

You run with them until you are both breathless. They crash … they hit the roof … you patch, comfort and assure them that someday they will fly.

Finally, they are airborne.

They need more string, and you keep letting it out.

They tug, and with each twist of the twine, there is sadness that goes with joy.

The kite becomes more distant, and you know it won’t be long before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that binds you together and will soar as meant to soar, free and alone.

Only then do you know that you have done your job.

Several years back, you started this new phase of life with two people and now left with the same old two people. Also later you will gracefully accept that you came alone with nothing to this earth and you go alone taking nothing with you.

Tags: children, Parenting