Love After Love
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.
Derek Walcott
Once, during our first years of life, we were just one with our mind and body. But as we grow up and get educated, there’s an inner voice that starts making judgements.
Who doesn’t criticize oneself as if we were talking to someone else? And in a special cruel way, telling us really harsh things we would never dare tell anyone else.
At some point along the way we should learn to love us again. As Derek Walcott has been able to put into moving words, let’s welcome the stranger we have become and nurture ourselves.
Let’s feast on our lives!
The image was taken 2 years ago at Centre Pompidou in Paris. I’ve learnt quite a few things since then, I’ve learnt the consequences of not loving oneself enough, but I’m determined to work on it. I’m determined to fest on my life, will you come with me?
