Inspiration for the New Year
“The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning you didn’t even think to ask.”
My journey continues
Despite all life’s twists and turns, the experiences are what matters the most.
At the beginning of the New Year, most of us take some time to reflect on the past year. Oh, what a year 2020 was! No one could have predicted the COVID 19 global pandemic, quarantines, shutdowns, and the aftermath associated with all. Christmas cards and holiday greetings mentioned looking forward to a new year and a return to normalcy. I, too, want this crisis to be over, but I also think there were some silver linings to the year. Here’s my list:
I learned how to cross-stitch and even framed my first effort
I survived the first few months of teaching via Zoom and now consider myself at an intermediate level
I cooked more and got better at baking - even made my first video on making chocolate banana bread
I walked more and got to appreciate the beauty of my neighborhood
I wore less makeup and let my skin breathe
So, where do we go from here? I want to share a poem a friend read to me as we were about to embark on a 200-mile trek across England. This poem, written in 1911 by Greek poet Constantine Cavafy has been translated into many languages. Cavafy refers to Ulysses' legendary journey through life and infers that each person is looking for his own Ithaca, his personal goal. However, in the end, it is not the goal but the journey that matters because this journey makes us wise and gives people unique experiences, wisdom, and maturity.
Ithaka
by Constantine Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon- don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon- you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
the sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars?
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her, you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Translated by Edmund Keeley/ Phillip Sherrard
I wish all of you the richest journey of your life in 2021. Take care, be safe and stay healthy. xo Mary