Excerpts: The Prophet

(The Prophet is the work of Kahlil Gibran, poet and philosopher. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages, and his drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world.
The Prophet is Gibran's most magical work, illustrated with his own drawings that are both enchanting and haunting.
This book copy belongs to Siti. Like me, she is fond of reading books in variety of topics. She is a mixed Chinese and Indian Singaporean woman who is a Muslim. She graduated from Leeds in UK and was a former Senior Deputy Head of Family & Civil Division of the Singapore Judiciary. Now, she is in UK. Why she gave up her prestigious job here, I also cannot fathom.
Our relationship is based on white lies. Sad it may sound, still I am thankful to her for this book.Here's the best part of the book most of us like.)

"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."