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.
I love the idea of recognizing yourself and even saying "hi" once in a while. Reflecting on myself, I do feel like a stranger sometimes, as if I don't have enough time to really get to know who I am.
My favorite part reads, "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." Wow! Such powerful words. Sometimes we get so caught up in the idea of romantic love and the unconditional love that exists between parent and child that we forget about the adoration that we should have for ourselves first. After all, myself is the one that has always been here, undeterring, unconditionally in love with who I am.
So why do I not pay myself more attention? I'm not talking about treating myself to a fancy spa date, but actually recognizing the self that's inside of me and all the capabilities and talents that are kept so bottled up because of the busy world we live in.
Last night I went to the mall, just a simple trip taken all by myself. I'm the kind of person that enjoys being around others and would have loved to have had someone join me but the way it turned out I was alone walking from store to store...and I liked it. I did what I wanted to do with no one to answer to or no coversations filling the air surrounding me--it was just me and my thoughts.
I was having a conversation with the hubby on Saturday and we were talking about how much we really enjoy spending time with one another, how we would rather do something together than alone. This is true, but I must say that by constantly being with him I have made myself a perpetrator of ignoring myself for another. It's not that I want to spend less time with him, it's just that I need to spend more time with just myself.
It's easy to overlook yourself and "let yourself go" as the saying goes. So from now on I will try to greet myself, treat myself, be in love with me and "feast" on who I am. And I encourage you to do the same.
