The Day Has Come

It's laudable to want to be a better person and learn from past mistakes. (And, believe me, I've made plenty of them.) But I don’t find much value in guilt, which means I have no desire to make New Year’s resolutions I won't keep.

In that spirit, I offer the following. It isn't an action plan for the future, but a wake-up call for today.

NOTE: Both the photo above--taken on the Vineyard--and the poem below remind me of the opening cantos to The Divine Comedy, Dante's archetypal midlife journey.

The Day Has Come
The day has come
To take an accounting of my life

Have I dreamed of late
Of the person I want to be,
Of the changes I would make
In my daily habits….

I have remained enchained too often to less than what I am.
But the day has come to take an accounting of my life…

I need to come in touch with my own power,
Not with titles,
Not possessions, money, high praise,
But with the power that is mine
As a child of the Power that is the universe
To be a comfort, a source of honor,
Handsome and beautiful from the moment I awoke this morning
So strong
That I can risk the love of someone else
So sure
That I can risk to change the world
And know that even if it all comes crashing down
I shall survive it all--
Saddened a bit, shaken perhaps,
Not unvisited by tears
But my dreams shall not crash down
My visions not go glimmering.
So long as I have breath
I know I have the strength
To transform what I can be
To what I am.

The day has come
To take an accounting of my life.

*From The Wings of Awe, a Machzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundations, Washington, D.C. Feel free to e-mail me at prill@prillboyle.com for the full text.

Photo Credit: Suzanne Sheridan