We had the privilege of being in Duluth this summer when the Tall Ships came sailing under the lift bridge. There is something about sailing ships that inspire a sense of wonder and set the imagination in motion.
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| The Peacemaker |
Mane was swept up in the excitement and began planning her high school and/or college career with Class Afloat on the Norwegian ship, Sorlandet...
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| Sorlandet |
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| Aboard Sorlandet |
What a wonder to realize that high school isn't really that far away and to begin having some hopes and dreams about something that once seemed so far off. She is a child of adventure. In many ways, much more so than myself. She has been a child of spirit, a mystery to me...and to Mango. How fitting that at her dedication ceremony, we read this poem...
On Children by Kahlil 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.
