Derek Walcott

Learning to love ourselves is the key to happiness. Reflection on ourselves, our past and life opens our hearts to appreciate who we are and want to be. First, we need to love ourselves before we can attempt to love others.

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 image from the mirror,

Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott