![]() I have learned to let go and let them be. Needless to say, when I look back, I feel like while we did some things right as we were always consistent and loving parents, we also did some things wrong specially when our inner tiger parent would rear its ugly head.Īs my children have grown, it’s dawned on me that I must not limit their possibilities. We put our youngest son in soccer, and he was never really into it. I told her that she should try to talk more. When my kids were little, I worried incessantly when my daughter talked very late and was very shy in school. I was busy raising my kids, and I scoffed at the idea that my children were not my children! Really? I carried them for nine months, gave birth to them, devoted all my time and energy to their upbringing the best I could, and yet they are not mine? Interestingly, I did not ruminate on his reasonings at that time. I had read it for the first time in my thirties when my children were toddlers. It has been the subject of parenting blogs for a long time, and many people have read it before. ![]() This poem by Kahlil Gibran is very popular. God in his infinite wisdom loves both the parents and their children. ![]() The Almighty knows the path of the arrow and its mark on the world. The arrow will successfully shoot forth into the universe and make its mark only if the bow is willing to bend. Parents should offer stable and secure support, and yet they must be flexible. The parents are the bow, the children are the arrows, and God is the archer. What I derived from these lines is a beautiful metaphysical metaphor. Let your bending in the archer’s hands be for happiness For even as He loves the arrow that flies, So He loves the bow that is stable. And He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. Let us nourish and nurture our children mindfully everyday with overflowing love. The past and the future are not ours to fathom but we can live in the present. The souls of our children dwell in a metaphysical abode, and we cannot visit or predict the vastness of who they are meant to be. Jess Lair, an American author has rightly said, “Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.” He also says, “We inevitably doom our children to failure and frustration when we try to set their goals for them.” Our kids should follow their own path and passion.Ĭhildren can never realize their complete potential if parents put pressure on them to act a certain way. We should not impose our beliefs on them.Ĭhildren do not bear the responsibility of fulfilling the unfinished vicarious dreams of narcissistic parents. Gibran goes on to write that children need our complete unconditional love and acceptance, but, they do not need to emulate our thoughts. Parents are the vehicles of the arrival of babies on this earth. They are wondrous miracles from God, and a product of nature’s soulful longing for creation of more life. They are free spirited souls, and we cannot chain them in servitude. The meaning I decipher from these lines is that we do not own our children. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.įor life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. 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 give them your love but not your thoughts. ![]() And though they are with you, they belong not to you. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. His poem, On Children is short, his message is simple, and yet so infinitely powerful and profound. Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), a sensitive and sagacious Lebanese American writer and poet, has left behind a mystical legacy of resonating words of wisdom on this topic. Sometimes, I wonder, are we overthinking this whole parenting thing? Are we making it more complicated than it needs to be? Parenting is truly important to all of us and it is an issue we deeply care about a job we would all like to excel at.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |