We talk lots on this site about learning to care for ourselves, to love ourselves, to reaquaint ourselves with who we were before we lost ourselves. But what does that mean? What would it look like to love ourselves? I came across this poem in the incredible Brainpickings newsletter and it sums it up perfectly. Read it, sit with it, marinate in it:
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.
My dearest Elle. I can not thank you enough for this beautiful reminder. I needed more than I realized. Thank you ♥
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