taking care of one's self
the male in me seems to feel certain responsibilities:
I want to take care of those I know,
nothing pushes my interior buttons
more than defaulting on making sure
the house has working water, power,
or that there's something
that I have forgotten to take care of. . .
my friend who just died
found purpose and success in taking care
of family, of any who came to him in need,
of any work reality that he felt needed him, fully,
I hoped for him to take a break more often,
to let another rise to the occasion,
to work more to meet his own needs,
in other ways than through service to the other,
I wonder if exhaustion finally took him,
and he had nothing left for himself, or for others,
maybe this is how he would have wished to go,
yet those of us who loved him wish
he had found more space in his life
to take care of himself, too.
by Henry H. Walker
March 31, ‘23
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