Your Children Are Not Your Children

A field of flowers
filled with color.
And among all those flowers,
life moves
in its own direction.
Some flowers
remain close together.
Others are carried away
by the wind.
And yet
they never truly
belonged to one another.
Your children
are not your children.
They come through you
into this world,
but they carry
their own soul,
their own rhythm,
their own longing
for life.
Sometimes we try
to hold on
out of love.
But true love
also allows movement.
Allows growth.
Allows departure
without losing
the connection.
Like flowers
that do not become less beautiful
simply because each one
grows toward
a different patch of light.
And perhaps
that is both
the hardest
and the most beautiful thing:
learning to love
without possessing.