I guess there were beautiful, important things
about being head over heels in love
with myself

(Though, granted, at the time,
I didn’t recognize
I was the object of my own affections)

It was important, I expect,
to know myself as loving,
(thinking I was loving them)
but loving that which I imagined
other people saw in me

I’m coming to see now that there is more  –
more scope, more purpose for my love,
greater opportunity to lose itself in service
and find the sweet fruition of its work.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 13, 2021