Children

[H2O Man]

{1} 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 .....
Let you bending in the archer's hand be for gladness.
-- Kahlil Gibran


{2} Another most powerful agent that gave native man promise of developing into a true human was the responsibility accepted by parenthood. ...And a still greater advantage was accrued to the race by the law of self-mastery which the young couple voluntarily placed upon themselves as soon as they discovered they were to become parents. Immediately, and for some time after, the sole thought of the parents was in preparing the child for life. And true civilization lies in the dominance of self, and not in the dominance of other men.

How far this idea would have gone in carrying my people upward and toward a better plane of existence, or how much of an influence it was in the development of their spiritual being, it is not possible to say. But it had its promises. And it cannot be gainsaid that the man who is rising to a higher estate is the man who is putting into his being the essence of humanism. ....

I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tepee meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization. And when native man left off this form of development, his humanization was retarded in growth.
-- Luther Standing Bear; Land of the Spotted Eagle


{3}

[Katherine Brengle]

1. Ah, Kahlil Gibran.

My wedding ceremony was right out of The Prophet. And I love this passage you quoted.

[H2O Man]

3. The Prophet

and The Voice of the Master are important reads.

[Shine]

2. "....they are Life's longing for itself..." So true.

I loooove that piece by Kahlil Gibran. :loveya:

H2OMan, your children are beautiful, btw. :hug:

Here are mine, at a peace vigil a couple yrs ago :hi:

[H2O Man]

4. It is found

in A.S. Neill's classic book about children, "Summerhill."

And thank you -- it's fun for me to look back on when my boys were little. Today, they are both young men, who make their father very proud.

And that is a beautiful picture of yours! I'm glad that they are at peace vigils. The picture reminds me of one of my favorite shots from when John & Yoko were conducting their "plant an acorn for peace" international campaign, and had a great photo taken where they appeared to be coming out of the paper cups they planted a couple acorns in.

[KoKo]

5. Well said...we don't OWN our CHILDREN any more than we OWN OUR LAND...

We would all be healthier if we could accept this concept. Our Children have DNA that makes us very different from their Natural Parents....and they harken back to DNA that goes way beyond their Parents.

AND the idiocy of us "owning our land" has gone on for so long and been so applauded ...it makes one weep... :cry:

We don't OWN OUR LAND...it's a transaction between the those who OWN the land ...depending on which Dictator, Emperor or Chosen One..decides who "Owns the Land."

The "Land BELONGS TO THE LAND!" We are only RENTERS or STEWARDS or causual obsevers. Take your pick,...WE RENT OUR LAND!

[H2O Man]

6. "I believe implicitly

that the child is not born mischeivous in the bad sense of the term. If the parents behave themselves while the child is growing, the child will instinctively obey the law of truth and the law of love. ... From my experience with hundreds of children, I know they have a finer sense of honor than you and I have .... Jesus never uttered a loftier or grander truth than when he said that wisdom cometh out of the mouth of babes. I believe it." -- Gandhi

Regarding land: "The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me." -- Leviticus 25:23 ("Handbook of the Priests")

[KoKo]

7. You are speaking of Leviticus speaking for God...in this passage...

I assume. :shrug:

[H2O Man]

8. Yes. n/t

[KoKo]

9. I wasn't clear in my post...I meant to say our Children are a Composite of ALL WHO WENT BEFORE THEM

they are not so much their Parents DNA as they are ...all those who went before them. So..to hold a parent responsible for either the Glory of a Child who Succeeds or the Misery of a Child who ends up in Prison for a terrible crime...doesn't serve our world in seeking truth.

We all have our burdens...but to be blamed for our Children (if we did the best we could) and they had problems or successes or to CLAIM OWNERSHIP of our EARTH in Parcels just because we are here and paid somebody to give us title ...well...BOTH ARE WRONG!!!! It isn't what folks who want to use this for their ends would want to hear, though. :shrug:

[mzmolly]

10. Beautiful.

A special quote for you -

Children make you want to start life over. ~ Muhammad Ali

Your boys are lovely.

[Jeroen]

11. Yes, unfortunately most parents seed their children with answers instead of questions.

A beautiful post H2O man, thanks.

[KoKo]

12. Beautiful Children...isn't what this is all about? n/t

[Madspirit]

13. Damn!

I didn't see this in time to recommend it. : <

This is wonderful and thank-you for posting it.

Lee