Parent'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 makes them smile, but that their smile
    make the occasion;

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

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

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

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

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