And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
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.
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

I haven’t revisited these lines of poetry in years—not since my favorite Navy pilot passed away. I’ve returned to them, not out of sadness or nostalgia, but with hope for those who follow us and begin to take the lead. We who are parents don’t step back, our children one day just step forward. They simply needed to believe they could fly to take the first step into the unknown.

Do you wonder at the next step for yourself, or do you just lean into forward motion? Always on to the next seems easier, but we ought to ask ourselves, where all these strides forward are taking us? We all want to fly, but forget that there’s nobility and grace in being the bow.