Love After Love

I will be turning fifty very soon and while some dread the number, I feel thankful. Thankful for how incredibly blessed I am. Thankful to have the people, places and things that are a constant in my life. Thankful to be able to retrieve the positive outlook that resides in me, always close to the surface, even after a hard day, a hard journey, a hard loss. Thankful that while there have been times in my life when I have struggled to like myself, that day is not today. I have worked hard to be who I am at fifty and I am blessed with more love than I could ever give enough thanks for. I am grateful for the pieces of you that live in me, the pieces you've given so freely to me through the years and because of you, I am happy with who I've become. I love my life...and I am thankful.

I came across a poem this morning by Derek Walcott that speaks of how I feel so I'd like to share it with you -

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 yourself.
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.

xo,
Carrie