"on Children"

As my daughter drives off with my son for high school, I know that whatever happens in their day does not have much of anything to do with me. What I mean by that is I have no control over their individual days, their teachers, the kids they meet, their moods, etc.  And I am reminded of the thought that most of what we think we have control over, anyway, is illusion (maya).  How much easier would life be to let go of the "need " for control, which really isn't need but habit?  How much calmer would we be?  A yogi friend sent me the following poem this morning:





On Children
 Kahlil 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 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.

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