Now, I try to see myself

Myself as a very good friend.

 

I’ve seen myself

Someone who has to be perfect at all times.

 

I’ve seen myself

Someone who has to please others, always please.

 

I’ve seen myself

Someone who can do, must do all that needs to be done.

 

But have I, have I, seen myself

As a good and true friend?

 

A good and true friend

Being there in good times and bad.

 

A good and true friend

Thinking the best of oneself and others.

 

A good and true friend

Looking at the good side more than the bad.

 

A good and true friend

Doing activities well-liked and enjoyed.

 

A good and true friend

United in thinking, in feeling and acting.

 

Now I try to see myself,

As simply and easily, a good and true friend.

 

Not just with others

But, yes, with myself.


Post script: This poem came about after an interchange with a good friend, after a Silo’s Message meeting. He shared an insight that life can be simple but I/we can make it complicated. And now, he just wanted to see himself as a good, a very good friend. We interchanged about our experiences with our good friends to see what being a good friend to oneself could be like. And this poem came out from my experiences and registers. Perhaps to inspire and guide me, going forward.


About the Image:

Artist: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) wikidata:Q82445 q:en:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Title: Looking in a Mirror
Description: Print; Prints
Date: 1896
Medium: Lithograph printed in three colors on wove paper
Dimensions:  20-7/16 x 15-3/4 in. (51.9 x 40.0 cm)
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art wikidata:Q160236
Current location: Drawings and Prints
Accession number: 1984.1203.166(8)
Credit line: Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982