← Back to gallery
Black-and-white close-up portrait of a young child with bangs, looking sideways at the camera with a slight smile.
On children. "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 backwards 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 arrow may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archers hand be for gladness; For even He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable." Kahlil Gibran. 1883-1931
A reading of the piece (AI-generated, interpretive): A gaze caught mid-glance becomes a meditation on the child as an already-separate soul, a small emissary of an unconscious 'tomorrow' the parent cannot enter; the soft focus of the room behind dissolves the present into the anonymous continuum from which the young keep arriving.
OTS-VERIFIED-BTC://00e9a35350f677fb56f4f6303bb8c4901f184de489c0809d6e46d2caa9fd5814
View on Instagram

Commons

Occasional long-form writing. No schedule, no promotion.

One email at a time. Unsubscribe in one click.