Sons and Daughters

I have been blessed with two children ~ a son and a daughter. On my desk sits their photographs. Both are the senior photos from high school. I love to have them close and just glancing at the pictures opens my heart. I'd like to believe that I love them unconditionally, without attachment. I wonder if a mother really can...

My son is 23 and just left on an adventure. He'll be working on an organic farm in Colorado. I think it is a good thing. He is such a free spirit and he struggles with deciding what he should do. I used to worry about him, almost obsessively. I felt it was my fault he didn't have direction. Now I know in my heart he actually does; just not direction in any traditional sense of the word.

My daughter, 29, is more focused and has created a life reflecting perfectly who she is. She spent a year in Bejing after college graduation, teaching English as a second language. She likes exciting experiences, too, but is somewhat more deliberate about planning and organizing her adventures. She has a wonderful life partner and is surounded by kindred spirits and family that offer support and love.

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, 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~

       

With each new day, my heart continues to open to the joy and wonder of these gifts, my children.