“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.” –Parker J. Palmer
Thanks again to Monasteries of the Heart for inspiring this week’s poetic spiritual practice. Today I’m riffing on a much-beloved poem by W.B. Yeats. My prayer for you this week: may you know yourself blessed and capable of blessing others, today and always.
Blessin’s, --Tom
…
MY FIFTIETH YEAR
By W.B. Yeats
My fiftieth year had come and gone, I sat, a solitary man, In a crowded London shop, An open book and empty cup On the marble table-top. While on the shop and street I gazed My body of a sudden blazed; And twenty minutes more or less It seemed, so great my happiness, That I was blessed and could bless.
…
MY THIRTIETH YEAR
By Tom Emanuel, after W.B. Yeats
My thirtieth year was coming on.
I sat, still reeling at my own,
unlooked-for, sheer audacity:
to choose not who I’m supposed to be
but who I am already.
The New York hills were sunshine, green-
ablaze with hopeful growing things,
a living will and testament:
the world is, and charges rent
to none who dares contentment.
…
QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK (r/t Mary Lou Kownack OSB): Yeats describes himself as a “solitary” man. What adjective would you use to describe yourself? Ask for or give a blessing to someone or something today.