A Parent's (or Godparent's) Wish

A Parent’s (or Godparent's 😀) Wish

For My Children I ask:

That they seek their happiness not so much at the finish line, as in the running;

That they have the strength not to lift tremendous weights, but one fallen friend;

That they learn to fight their own battles with a never-ending string of temporary cease fires;

Not that the occasion make them smile, but that their smile make the occasion;

That their bridges be built not over rivers, but over misunderstanding;

That their wealth be not in their banks but in their hearts;

That they gain power not over others, but over themselves;

That they never fail to leave the stage before their applause is done;

That they bow not to little people with big titles, but to big people with little titles;

That they keep strict account not of favors owed to them, but to others;

Not that they never know grief; but that they never know joy the moment after

That their names be household words not throughout the land, but in their own households;

That their monuments be found not in public parks, but in the lives of those they have touched.

- Jerry Spinelli