A turned-down corner of a good book touched me yesterday. I was given a book of prose as a gift from a former student, a special child with a special eye, the ability to compose beauty to appear natural and then instantly record it. As an old artist, I know this to be a gift given not a skill learned. As is my habit I was sitting by a new warm fire, early in the dawn, bitter cold and deep snow on reading the Ancient Text and then had picked up the gift to read the two pages from it as a stimulate to my own habit of daily writing. As I turned the page to the new poem the corner was turned down, marked for me to find, to say long after the receiving, “This is the reminder of you I am giving you.” I am just now feeling the warmth of the fire covering me over from the cold of night and thus was that turned-down corner, a warming reminder of this small, gift-giving, red-headed child. The poem was titled;
For Retirement
This is where your life has arrived,
After all the years of effort and toil;
Look back with graciousness and thanks
On all your great and quiet achievements.
You stand on the shore of new invitation
To open your life to what is left undone;
Let your heart enjoy a different rhythm
When drawn to the wonderer of other horizons.
Have the courage for a new approach to time;
Allow it to slow until you find freedom
To draw alongside the mystery you hold
And befriend your own beauty of soul.
Now is the time to enjoy your heart’s desire,
To live the dreams you’ve waited for,
To awaken the depths beyond your work
And enter into your infinite source.
To Bless the Space Between Us, A book of blessings
By John O’Donohue
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