We arrived safe and sound. There was not much traffic and the roads were clear through the mountains. It is a bit tiring with a lot of visiting of family and friends. We are a large family spread out geographically so we do not see each other often. It is different to see each other face-to-face, have conversations, share meals, and reminisce. There is much laughter.
I find it is in these gatherings that I look in. I greet my self through the presence of siblings, parents, nieces, nephews, and a varied assortment of relatives. Who do we resemble inwardly and outwardly? It is not always obvious until we see others who helped form of our lives. It is like meeting yourself on the journey of life. It is in this companionship, with others and eventually our self, we rediscover our self.
Derek Walcott wrote this beautiful poem around that theme, meeting yourself on life’s journey.
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
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 own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
Teacher as Transformer 
I am glad you are enjoying your time with family and friends. Getting in touch with yourself inside and out.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Thank you Francine.
This is wonderful! Can never have to much time with our loved ones. I know I’m like my dad & more & more like him as I get older. And – I love it! 🙂
Happy Times – Keep on Livin’
Thank you Rosy.There are some things that we need to embrace. Increasingly, I embrace being like those I grew up with.
Enjoy yourself and your family and friends its wonderful that you all get to reunite even though it isn’t very often.
Thank you Dom.
Really Beautiful poem.
It is analogous to say : WE’VE TO SEARCH OUR OWN ROUTES
TO REACH THE DESTINATION
That is a beautiful analogy Lvsrao.
Enjoy your time with family..this poem is magnificent, and resonates deeply with me..
I read your blog post today. One of the reasons I am drawn to poetry is the opportunity to find deep meaning within the words and to know that another person will find something other than what I find. I find myself saying to students that I did not think of their understanding.
Beautiful, as is the poem, Ivon… Tiring, yet enjoyable – a wonderful way to spend time..
I find enjoyable in the job well done. There is something in the goodness of that job that makes the tiredness feel worth it all.
I know so well, this contemplation you describe.
Love the last words most especially. Love the word ‘feast’. And then life…
Enjoyed this post, much.
Thank you. The poet, Derek Walcott, found some interesting and provocative words.
This poem was absolutely amazing, and so moving. Thank you Ivon.
You are welcome Yaz.