HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFFREY RANDOLPH RENVILLE

Happy Birthday my one and only child.

Against all odds we both survived one of those "Hungarian dramas" that this family is so fond of.

On the radio right now they are playing a csardas...

From The Phophet by Kahil Gibran

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:

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.

My tanka

He sits on the large hill

King of his great pride

His kingdom down below

The responsibilities are vast

A roar awkens the day

Written this morning August 17, 2007

Happy Birthday!!!!!