I've shared this poem before, and now I'm going to share it again. I'm quite certain one can read it 57 times a day and not grow weary of it. It was written by Kahlil Gibran, published in 1923, and it goes as follows:
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.
We all arrived through someone. Our childhoods may not have been perfect, but that’s not the point. As it relates to love, our families were our first teachers, for better or for worse. Some had a stable bow, others did not. Here’s the thing though, about love – regardless of our own upbringing, it’s up to us to willingly bend in His loving hand and send forth strong arrows. The children of this world deserve nothing less - neither do you. Love each other fiercely, so we grow to be stable bows.
It's the most noble thing we can do.
Here forthwith, are the remaining responses for your greatest loves.
This has varied throughout my life, however at this specific point in time it is my husband and two beautiful children. You do not realize how children change you – they become an irreplaceable part of your life. I always heard that having children is amazing, but it is far more than that.
My greatest physical love is my
family…husband, children, grandchildren, siblings, parents both deceased, my
extended in-law families. My greatest mental love is God and my greatest
spiritual love is Mother Earth.
Me. In the past I did not believe or trust in
myself which led to a lot of mistakes and heartache. Discovering that the power
of the universe is within me has created a love for myself, the people around
me and the world.
Perogies with salt and full fat sour cream,
freshly baked white bread, a sleeping child perfectly molded into the crook of
my arm early on a Saturday morning and kissing the plump, soft underside of a
baby’s cheek.
Hair and music.
I love freesias. I think it’s one of the most
beautiful smelling flowers.
The land.
Music, pets and art.
My relationship with Jesus…then my husband
and son.
This would be a toss-up between my husband,
grandmother and stepmom. I love them all so dearly for so many different
things. My Spice Girls Greatest Hits CD and Sound of Music DVD come in as close
seconds.
My husband - the daddy of my little girl and
my best friend.
That would be a three way tie – my husband
and my two kids. Tough to say who I love more – my kids or my husband. My kids
will move away and I will need (and I want) to spend the rest of my life with
my husband. Amazing to say that even though we’ve been together for so many
years! Having said that, sometimes watching my kids is like having an
out-of-body experience. They are ‘me’ but walking around separate from me – I
don’t know if this is captured well in writing! How can you not love you? OK –
so not ‘you’ but you?
My greatest love is a man I’ve known for
years upon years, but only recently and inadvertently got to know. His belief
in me took me through the trajectory of fully knowing myself.
My life partner.
God.
Nothing remarkable about this answer: my
sweet little family of my husband and two lovely, hilarious daughters. Not that
I don’t also love my big crazy extended family, I certainly do, but the truth
is that despite belonging to a very large family, I’ve spent most of my life
feeling like an orphan. That is, until I built my own little clan who taught me
what it is supposed to feel like.
My puppy.
My daughter.
My Dad.
My kids, my husband, writing.
My greatest love is God, for without him we
don’t have love. He truly is the
only one we can count on through rain and shine.
Mommy and Daddy.
Music. It can lift
your soul, comfort you when you need it. Singing lifts your heart and sometimes
lyrics hit you in the gut for how it’s so fitting in your life. It can inspire.
Bring people together and I really believe it has an energy all on its own.
My husband is my
greatest love. He is my yin or my yang, whichever I need him to be.
My God. Second to
that, my family.
My greatest love
would have to be my families. I consider myself to have my blood-related
family, and my extended families of friends and coworkers. I do not know where
I would be without these people in my life – I wouldn’t be where I am today
without them.
My daughter. Is that
a fair answer? She’s the only person on this earth I would die for in a
heartbeat. Her Dad was my first real love, and the only man who asked me to
marry him and I guess he gave me my greatest love, so he’s right up there too.
Gratification from
accomplishing a goal.
My greatest love is
for life and new discoveries…sharing something new with special friends, riding
along and seeing a beautiful waterfall and wondering where its source begins.
My son.
The wife and kids.
The great non-person loves are jazz, basketball, reading and writing – a
four-way tie.
My greatest love is
myself. When I get to feeling something less than love for myself, that is when
I start treating the most important people in my life poorly. I think because
when I feel that I am not deserving of their love, I subtly push them away. I
dare them to leave me because why would they want to be with me anyway? To
thine own self, be true.
Wow…that’s tough. Is
it me? My Mom? God? Life?
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