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.

Since I first read this book many years ago.. this passage on children stops me cold.. you may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you.. I so appreciate about what is unconditioned in children, it reminds me of my own unconditioned nature. Babies especially, I can see it in them immediately, they are free, they are not feeling separate, worrying about me or mine or lack..
So often I take my kids to the park and I hear moms of toddlers who are touching some kids toy.. that's not yours! They don't really care I often think..

Why do we need to teach separation and lack? From my perspective it's so much more important to learn from our kids, remember our own unconditioned reality, where we don't need to classify and categorize or label.. of course we can help our kids to navigate certain things, to focus on solutions, to empower themselves by honoring them mostly.

 There is such an opportunity for mindfulness in how we want to train our children, it's so important to honor who and what they are as we try to give them skills to have more flow as they go through life. The priority is to remember who they are: whole, complete and perfect, deep wisdom is within them, they know why they are here and what they are here to do on some level and my job is to remember this always. I need to trust that they have access to their own deep wisdom and continuously point them back to that as the guiding force.

To treat my kids with the same respect I'd give any other adult person as best as I can.. truly there are no small souls! Let your bending in the archers hand be for gladness.. this really speaks to me.. my experience of parenting has absolutely bent me.. it's shaped me, it's opened my heart in ways I could not imagine.. my children are here to teach me about unconditional love.. I have no doubt about that.. they are here to bring me back to the recognition of my own true nature, so sweet!