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.

💕💕💕

Yesterday I experienced the joy of sharing a day with a group of wonderful people looking at the element of Metal from the Five Elements System of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The element of Metal in my view asks us to pay attention to simplifying our entangled being.

It is to step onto the path of calming the Tigers of desire which manifest in our busy, unstable consciousness, with its moods and obsessions, its feverish swings between interest and apathy, its conflicts and irrational impulses, which we see as us and others define as you.

Our focus on the game, the role of getting on, being seen to be doing the right thing; fully fulfilling our societal and cultural expectations which persist unimpeded in all areas of our life.

Again and again the seeker in us swings back to the search for the true self, the moth continually circles the flame. The metal element points out to us that something much more than realisation is needed if we are to adjust ourselves to our new, more creative vision of being with the world. The role, the game which we have played so long has formed and conditioned us, developed certain qualities and perceptions, leaving the rest in abeyance: so that now, suddenly asked to consider another way, which asks for fresh movements, courage and alertness of a different sort, we find our mental and physical muscles are intractable, and our attention finds it difficult to respond. 

It is here that the Metal Tiger tells you that nothing less than letting go will serve you; that a radical remodelling of our physical, emotional and spiritual character is required. This is the ‘work’ we are asked to undertake.

Only then may we discover our innermost sanctuary where a stranger patiently awaits our presence; that which we recognise as our true self the true you, so that we may once again, be reunited with:

“the stranger who was your self.”

Stepping Lightly on the Earth 

The word presence

doesn’t mean much

until you realise

what you and

space have in common