1 of 3 of my top 10 favorite poets is Jubran Khalil Jubran.   If you try to search for his name, try Khalil Gibran.  He was born on January 6, 1883, in a village of Bisharri in what is now considered northern Lebanon, but at that time was Ottoman Syria.  He considered himself a painter and was a figure in the Romantic movement, an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe towards the end of the 18th century.  It was characterized by emotion, individualism, clandestine literature, and other elements with an increased introspection towards the inner psychological life.  You may ask: can you translate that so that the man on the street can understand?  How about this? The poet and critic Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1846, “Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling.”

Perhaps there is a 2023 Romanticism arising as the young blood on the streets when they spout off and express their frustrations, angers, concerns to me, generously sprinkled with vulgar elements, rap snippets, and the capper, “Do you feel me?  Do you feel me?”  Twice always, for emphasis.  Their eyes scan everywhere, but my face, as they note the environment - who’s coming up the street, who’s going down.  They nervously look away, up down, around and then, finally with those last two sentences, they quickly search for mine to meet to see if I really understand.

I “felt” Khalil Gibran.  I met him in childhood.  I think I was 8.  He was old, dusty, and coughing like an 80 year old man with a 30 cigarette a day dependency, or like Canadian choke smoke covering Manhattan.  Mr. Gibran was hiding in a bookshelf in my Queens basement.  I’ll never forget the cover.  It was yellow with a sort of eerie picture of a man either lost or deep in thought, contemplating, meditating, or depressed.  I was still learning how to read faces.

I blew the dust off the cover, hacked the cough of an inexperienced child bowing to pressure and sneaking a schoolyard smoke.  The cover solemnly said: “The Prophet.”  I thought this must be serious and sacred.  I had never seen a book like this in the Good Book.  Usually it was a name - Joshua, Habakkuk, Micah, Isaiah.  This said:  “The Prophet”.  I carefully and slowly opened the book sacredly as the title alone demanded respect - the age told me it was my father’s, and I had a thing about books. You don’t open them all the way because you will crease the spine.  I read a few lines of the poetry, chewed on the thoughts for a little while, and then returned it safely to its place.

Today, Sunday, June 11, 2023, is National Children’s Day.  It is observed on the second Sunday of June in the United States, not just for parents, but communities as well to reflect that children are the future, and we need to slow down, sit down, and get down to notice and pay more attention to the little human beans :-) in our lives.  The day not only alerts us to remember our children, but it also addresses the importance of children in society and the plethora of challenges that some still face in different aspects of their lives.  The observation of this day aims to improve children’s welfare, invest in their future and address mental and physical health issues they are facing, managing and enduring. The day is meant for us to STOP and give children what they need so desperately - TIME, ATTENTION, LOVE!

What are the actionable steps that we can do to honor children?  What is a memory that you have that was done for you as a child that electrified your mind, reassured your heart, told you that you were valuable, recognized as a person, respected as a human, appreciated for who you are.  Do you remember?  Comment below in the comments section.

Here are a few simple but powerful things that we can do for our children:

PLAY

ACKNOWLEDGE

LISTEN

Learn and sing together a favorite song.

Dance together to a cool song.   

Share a chore together.

Walk in Nature Together.

Bake cookies together.

Work together to fix something in the house.

Did the Prophet say anything about children?

On Children

Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet

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.

In recognition of National Children’s Day, Mistofer Christopher is gifting the children’s story app “Talk About The Monster” (ages 5-11) for free on Android and Apple platforms.  From Sunday June 11 – to Friday June 30, 2023, download your free copy.   Click on link to download the app and share it with as many people as possible.  Please leave a nice review in the app store if you enjoyed the app.