Quote it Saturday - Children

Hosted by Freda's Voice

I am going back to work on Monday and can't wait to see the beautiful kids in my class after their holiday, so this week I thought I'd quote about children. The passage by Kahil Gibrahn is one of my favourites. If you haven't read his work in 'The Prophet', try and get yourself a copy, it is simply beautiful.

A child can ask a thousand questions that the wisest man cannot answer. 

Jacob Abbott 1803 - 1879

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body. 

                     Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 - 1882

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 soul,

for their soul belongs 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 1884 - 1931