The Learning Series — Your children are not your children

A friend posted on Facebook. A picture with her son off to college and the caption was ‘How am I going to let this boy go to college? My heart is breaking already.’

My response was ‘Unfortunately that’s our job. Teach them to fly and watch them soar’. We often forget that our words and actions with our children should be to cut the string so that they can fly and explore. Any string that stays attached through our words or actions will limit, interrupt, and keep us grounded. We are a part of the animal world and our responsibility ends when our children learn to fly. As Khalil Gibran says: ‘Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.’