launching

There are a few basic realities that oh-so-strongly influence the way that I have parented. 
I want my children to be able to make strong and informed choices. 
I want my children to have both roots and wings (a card from my sister-in-law with these words several years ago made its way onto my windowsill, where I do my dishes). 

I want my children to understand that they are not here by chance, but by design, and that their lives have infinite value in my eyes as well as in the eyes of the One who knew them before they took their first breath. 

And I have loved the perspective of Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet on children ...

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 love also the bow that is stable.

I have always looked forward to the worlds that my children will show me

as they build and travel, dream and think ...