A gift only available to those who have already received the gift of years

Recently Oprah Winfrey interviewed Diana Nyad on her weekly program, “Super Soul Sunday.” Oprah quoted the first verse of this following poem as a response to a statement by Diana. I found the poem on the Internet and share it here.

I won’t interfere with your reading of this poem by sharing my own thoughts as I read it. Only this: Sit, read, enjoy, smile, reflect, read again . . . . .

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