A good friend of mine speaks often of respecting people for where they are at and recognizing the growth that is to come in them. When we consider the foolishness in our personal past, we become thankful for the learning that has come and for that which is to come. It is important to recognize this lifelong process in others as well as in ourselves. Today this poem inspired me to remember to be a faithful friend to my past and future self.
Love After Love by Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
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