Personal Essays

Tracey, flying



We are all back home now. Tracey has gone back to her apartment and her job. Kelly went off to college orientation. Alex had to switch his sleeping schedule back around to deal with his graveyard shift summer job. Life is back to normal. As it should be. Times like this cruise are precious gifts to be treasured amidst our regular daily lives. I fell in love with my family on this journey. I look at my grown up children and realized I've done my job and done it well. My children are loving and kind. And my husband and I will survive and even flourish. We begin our new adventure as our children begin theirs.

This was my passage....

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 our 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.

- Kahlil Gibran
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