As I close this life of comfort, security and reclusiveness and enter uncertain years of world-wide travel to connect deeply with people and places I'll be guided in part by this poignant poem by an unmet mentor Maya Angelou
| CONTINUE My wish for you Is that you continue Continue To be who and how you are To astonish a mean world With your acts of kindness Continue To allow humour to lighten the burden Of your tender heart Continue In a society dark with cruelty To let the people hear the grandeur Of God in the peals of your laughter Continue To let your eloquence Elevate the people to heights They had only imagined Continue To remind the people that Each is as good as the other And that no one is beneath Nor above you Continue To remember your own young years And look with favour upon the lost And the least and the lonely Continue To put the mantel of your protection Around the bodies of The young and defenceless | Continue To take the hand of the despised And diseased and walk proudly with them In the high street Some might see you and Be encouraged to do likewise Continue To plant a public kiss of concern On the cheek of the sick And the aged and infirm And count that as a Natural action to be expected Continue To let gratitude be the pillow Upon which you kneel to Say your nightly prayer And let faith be the bridge You build to overcome evil And welcome good Continue To ignore no vision Which comes to enlarge your range And increase your spirit Continue To dare to love deeply And risk everything For the good thing Continue To float Happily in the sea of infinite substance Which set aside riches for you Before you had a name Continue And by doing so You and your work Will be able to continue Eternally |
