On Children

By: 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.

The Bench

Here are the directions to the Jonkhoff / Rogers bench along the trails of the Old Mission Point Park, one of our favorite hiking locations and where I proposed to Lindsey (although, not right where the bench is). We gave the bench to our parents as a gift at our wedding reception.

“Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be.”

~ Robert Browning

Education

School
“What if you started a school that presupposed the goal was happy kids? And I mean happy with a capital H. Balanced. Thoughtful. Compassionate. Doers. What if their resume wouldn’t ever matter? Some of you have heard me say before that the only people who care about your GPA are people who you’ve given no other basis to evaluate you. So, what if instead you wanted to build an education that fostered interestingness? Understanding? Action? Experience? . . . I’ve yet to see test scores correlate with happiness. I’ve yet to even see test scores correlate with learning with a L, …”

~ Chris Sacca

Be Amazed

“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be amazed by each morning breath. By the boys’ precious smiles. By the sunrise each morning.

While they may seem the same, each is unique.

Children’s Books Quotes

At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I’ve grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.

~ Chris Van Allsburg, The Polar Express

There are things about you quite unlike any other.
Things always known by your father or mother.
So if you decide to be different one day,
no worries . . . I’d know you anyway.

~ Nancy Tillman, I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love