Letting go is hard
Sunday, January 22, 2006My wife and I let our kids ride around the block on their new bikes for the first time recently. It wasn't easy. We watched them ride up the road and over the hiil till we couldn't see them any more, then we walked around the corner to the next street to anxiously wait for them to reappear.
In "The Prophet" Kahlil Gibran describes parenthood as the bow from which the arrow is freed.
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.
It's a beautiful metaphor.
Why, then, does it feel like we're tossing them in the drink and hoping the sharks don't come swimming by?
1 Comment
Because we send them out before the arrows are finished! They are not ready to deal with the sharks, that is a good caution. Don't let people teach you otherwise!