On Children

Millie and I had our final parent-child playgroup at the Waldorf school last week. We will be returning to the 2-3 year-old group in the Fall, but her play mates will all be moving on to the nursery class (she is the youngest). I snuck a couple of photos before we left the room. We are so grateful for this space. Our Thursday mornings have been filled with peace, joy, beauty, fun, movement, singing, playing, friends, comfort, happy thoughts, and so much intellectual and spiritual reflection. A truly shining example of the wonders that early childhood can hold (for the child and the parent). We will miss it so much over the summer.
Our lovely teacher left this poem in our cubby. I've read it so many times in the past week, I think I almost have it memorized.

On Children

Kahlil Gibran

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.