On my birthday, I thought a self-portrait would be appropriate. Birthday's are a good time for self reflection. It's been a tough year filled with challenges and transitions, but I'm pleased to report I'm still here, happily working, and feeling grateful. The obstacles of this year have helped me grow and softened and opened my heart. Difficulties can be an opportunity for growth. My feeling is, if I have to go through it, I might as well use it as a vehicle for internal transformation. I want to make my dark pits into mines for gold. I want to be the hero of my story, not the victim. Of course, this is not always an easy thing to do and it is made immeasurably easier by the support of my friends and family. I've said this before, but would not be here today without all of you. My gratitude knows no bounds. xoxo
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.