There’s very little I can do to right the world on a global scale. Or a regional scale. Or a national scale. Or even a local scale. So when I see a wrong I can right, I’m on it. Priorities.
This poem has been doing the social media rounds in recent days.
Don’t prioritise your looks my friend, as they won’t last the journey.Your sense of humour though, will only get better with age.Your intuition will grow and expand like a majestic cloak of wisdom.Your ability to choose your battles, will be fine-tuned to perfection.Your capacity for stillness, for living in the moment, will blossom.Your desire to live each and every moment will transcend all other wants.Your instinct for knowing what (and who) is worth your time, will grow and flourish like ivy on a castle wall.Don’t prioritise your looks my friend,they will change forevermore, that pursuit is one of much sadness and disappointment.Prioritise the uniqueness that make you you, and the invisible magnet that draws in other like-minded souls to dance in your orbit.These are the things which will only get better.
It’s being attributed to the lovely Dame Judi Dench. I’m a massive fan of JD. I love how she dresses, and how she carries herself. I love her irreverence. Her innate classiness. She’s my idea of ageing well, my model. Sadly, I can’t carry off her flowing garbs – I look like a sack of potatoes. I even went to the boutique in Bath where she shops and tried everything they had. But I don’t see her when I look in the mirror. I see myself, playing dress-up. Maybe it’s a style I need to grow into. I’m working on it.
I had no trouble believing that she’d said this, that these were her words. They fit. They fit her. But I, like so many others, was wrong.
Donna Ashworth wrote the poem. And she very nicely made it known that they were her words. And now her name is being appended to the poem that still carries JD’s photo. Most people don’t register Donna’s name. They comment on JD, noting what an amazing woman she is.
Donna Ashworth is pretty amazing, too. She’s one of the few people I don’t know know (as in have met) who I follow on FB.
I’m grateful for her words and the way they resonate with me.
