And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They’re 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.
– Kahlil Gibran
You may give your children 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.
– Kahlil Gibran/ The Prophet
About Kahlil Gibran and his wisdom on parenting
Wisdom on Parenting from Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, also considered a philosopher although he himself rejected the title. He is best known as the author of The Prophet, which was first published in the United States in 1923 and has since become one of the best-selling books of all time, having been translated into more than 100 languages.
Kahlil Gibran’s Childhood
Gibran was born January 6, 1883, in the village of Bsharri, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Lebanon). Gibran’s family lived in poverty. In 1888, Gibran entered Bsharri’s one-class school, and there he learnt the rudiments of Arabic, Syriac, and arithmetic
Kahlil Gibran’s Work
Gibran explored literary forms as diverse as “poetry, parables, fragments of conversation, short stories, fables, political essays, letters, and aphorisms. Two plays in English and five plays in Arabic were also published posthumously between 1973 and 1993; three unfinished plays written in English towards the end of Gibran’s life remain unpublished (The Banshee, The Last Unction, and The Hunchback or the Man Unseen). Gibran discussed “such themes as religion, justice, free will, science, love, happiness, the soul, the body, and death”in his writings, which were “characterized by innovation breaking with forms of the past, by symbolism, an undying love for his native land, and a sentimental, melancholic yet often oratorical style. [wikipedia]
CONVERSATIONAL WISDOM FROM CELESTE HEADLEE
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