Musings about our Children who Dwell in the Houses of Tomorrow

In Sunday School last weekend, the teacher played a recitation of Khalil Gibran's poem, "On Children". Of many notable stanzas in this poem, the one that arrested my attention the most was, "For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams."

Often I am concerned and frustrated by the lifeways and lifestyles of my adult children, especially when I do not see them getting the results I want for them. This stanza helped me as it reminded me that they dwell in the house of tomorrow and that I can neither visit nor dream of this place where they are. I am then reminded that the same is true of my parents and grandparents who worry about the results they see in my life that are different than their expectations. This is the generational circle of life we are bound up in I suppose.

Hearing this stanza helped me to breathe, and loosen my grip on the desire to control outcomes in my children's lives. It reminds me to trust that however different tomorrow's house may look to me, it will be as sufficient for them as my tomorrow's house has been for me in my life and generation.

With this realization, may I do a better job of converting the energy of concern to that of encouragement as I witness my children's lives unfold. It means also letting them work with the instructive, too often seemingly catastrophic, consequences of their life decisions. That is hard, and that is what life is. As M. Scott Peck says in the book, "The Road Less Travelled", life is hard and the moment we accept this fact, life begins to become easier. May this be so for all we parents of adult children who live in the houses of tomorrow.