Sons
("The Prophet and The Wind")
"You don’t bring up children, but they raise you.
They are your mentors, because they expect from you what is right before proceeding to imitate you.
When you say: we will give life to a child; do you know which life you are giving? Not theirs, but yours.
If you do not understand this, it would be better to tighten your flanks and carry on.
When you say: children are our cross to bear, be happy that they have nailed you to it, thus avoiding that you fall into nothingness.
And also when you say: our children take up a lot of our time, ask yourself if that time could be better spent elsewhere.
Listen to your children while they are in their infancy for during that time they still bear some fragments of the smile that was imprinted on them by the angels.
When you lead them by the hand, don’t rush, but walk at their pace, for their only desire is to rid you of your hurry.
Don’t give them presents; give yourself to them. Gifts are your alibi for not giving yourself.
Deliver yourself into their hands since they have found the wisdom that you lost.
Call them by name and they will call back to the child that is within you. The child that, if left to your own devices, you cannot resuscitate. They will play with that child in the garden of Life.
Listen to your children when they are adolescents. The greater part of the wall that often separates you during this time of their life was not built with their bricks but with yours.
Don’t ask them to do things that you don’t do.
If you are wise, just be yourself.
If you are not wise, do not set limits for your children without pointing out to them a final objective. You will obtain more by showing them the beauty of their goals than in warning them against the pitfalls.
Don’t despair if they don’t observe the rules you teach. In truth, they would tremble with fear if they had no rules. They transgress either to test the veracity of your norms or to solicit the reproof that is a testimony of your love for them.
If they hurt you it is because you have offered your vulnerability to them or because you have simply given without having taught them to give.
Sometimes they will leave, slamming the door behind them. As you watch them sailing off, know that the holds of the ships on which they embark are filled with the goodness of your words and that, when the first storm hits, they will seek refuge in the wisdom you have imparted.
You must sow their fields, but do not try to reap their crop.
Your mission consists in giving, giving, giving even when the sharp edge of their freedom cuts into your hand.
Finally, listen to your children also when they are in their youth. You will be surprised to find that their ship has traveled beyond the first rocks and that all that lies before them is the most dangerous obstacle of all: you.
They will be called to travel along roads that you have not tread. Do not blindly try to bar their path for the plant is allowed to generate but not to keep the fruit that it has borne.
Do not hold back your children in the belief that your projects are greater than the projects drawn by Life.
You have donated your life to them. Now take it back and give them their freedom.
Free your heart from any desire to receive, because if your flute is not hollow, the renewed melody of Life cannot play through it.
If you learn this perfect form of giving, you will know how to love your children even if they change aspect and then, be they children of your blood or children chosen by your heart, you will have accomplished the third passage towards your growth.
You will be the instrument that plays the notes of the universe and you will understand that Life has composed new lyrics".
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