Mahogany Chic

"Your Children Are Not Your Children"

 
The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran


On Children

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.

I was on a plane when I saw a man reading this book.  I was attracted to the book although I did not know what it was.  A few days later I recognized the cover on Amazon.  It had over 200 5-star reviews so ordered it.

Kalil Gibran was a Lebanese poet, philosopher, theologian, writer and artist.  He is the third bestselling poet in history after Shakespeare and Laozi.  The Prophet was originally published in 1929 and is still very thought provoking.  I highly recommend this book for anyone striving to live their best life or looking for answers.

YES WE CAN

How was your experience?

Daily Kos has a beautiful photo essay about why we stand in line to vote.

Halloween

Halloween was wet and nasty.  The temperature rose to about 56 degrees and the snow began to melt.  It was pretty mild but there was snow, slush, and puddles of water everywhere. 

 I think it was the best day of my son’s two year life - from his perspective.  I had to fight him to put the costume on.  But after he got his first piece of candy he was walking with his bucket in hand giggling, he literally giggled the whole time.  Just walking and giggling with excitement.  This was his first time going trick or treating and I don’t allow him to eat candy. 

Of course he has had candy before.  If he finds a piece in the house he will sprint as far away from me as possible and eat it.  He also gets the occasional piece of candy from my husband who doesn’t listen to me when I tell him not give the kids too much junk food. 

My husband is a junk food junkie. 

By the end of the night he was trying to say trick or treat.  He didn't say it right but you could tell he was trying to say it.  When we got home he just kept opening and tasting and giggling. 

Believe it or not my son doesn’t really like candy.  He just tastes most of it.  I think he thinks that he is supposed want it.  My four-year old is the same way, she always asks for sweets although she doesn’t like them. Sometimes I just give them to her because I know that she won’t eat whatever it is. 

My son was in hog heaven.  I have never seen him so happy in his whole life.  Candy must be some good stuff, even though he did more opening and licking than eating.