A poem with shoes on

So this poem has come up a few times in my life recently from different places and people. And I think about it often. So I would like to share it here and share in the thinking about it as we parent and relate to children and learn about ourselves and the children in the world.

It is from The Prophet by Khalil 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.
-Khalil Gibran

(A couple years ago, a different Khalil Gibran poem about marriage popped up from different places. I don't mind if his words keep finding there way into my life and thoughts. I like them and can relate to them.)
Johari has put on her own shoes a couple of times now. Both times the left was on the right and the right on the left. We just rolled with it that way. Who is really to decide which shoe should go on which foot? As long as she is comfortable and able to accomplish it of her own accord!! It looks funny to my mind's eye to see the feet looking like they are going to head off in different directions, but developing independence is a beautiful thing.
Yesterday night she wanted to get out of the house late at night and go for a walk with her stuffed animal dog and her baby doll. As we were passing by our car, she decided she wanted to roll out. So I started driving not sure where we should head to, when everything is closed or closing at 9 o'clock at night. But we ended up passing by Barnes and Noble and she said that she wanted to go in. We looked at books and played around with things in the children's section. We are getting to know the woman that works that section some nights.