Life's longing for itself

Congratulations to blogfriend Lissa and husband Mike, who are expecting!  Lissa actually told me this when we met in Orlando a couple weeks ago, but I was sworn to secrecy - but since she's just declassified the information, public congratulations are in order!

I hope that you and Mike love being parents as much as I have.  But I have to warn you - it gos by in a flash.  One day, you're bouncing them on your knee:

The next day (it seems), they're in their Class A:

It's been the best thing I've done.  I hope you find that same joy, and heartache, and joy.  I know that it's clich&eacute:, but this has stuck with me since we were expecting #1 Son.  The older I get, the more it speaks to me, whispering words straight to my soul in the dark of the night.

On Children (Kalil 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.

Oh, and some day you'll be able to go away again with just you and Mike.  That will be nice, too.  Until then, I hope it's like this at the Raj Mahal: