An Unfinished Woman

Eileen began her talk with a few lines from her most favorite poem.  I found it in an old book from 1997 and want to share it with you.  Wonder when it was written?  This will now be one of my favorites.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  It has great wisdom, reality, humor, hope.  Well, to me it does...maybe your heart will be touched in another way!  Enjoy!

An Unfinished Woman

Here am I, Lord,

The dishes barely done and night long

since fallen,

The children would not go to bed

And would not go and

Would not go--

And now they are gone.

Gone to places of their own with children

of their own

Who will not go to bed and will not go... 

And I have taught them what I could and

They have learned the things they would

And now they've gone their way alone to

learn the rest
Most on their own.

And I remain, not half spent,

And I remain, not yet content,

So much to do, so much to learn,

So much to feel, so much to yearn.

My past mistakes make stepping-stones,

Not millstones great around my neck

but

Stones to guide my searching feet--

And I must search; I'm incomplete.

I watch my years go tumbling by

And I must use them better, I

Have yet so much to learn and do

Before I can return to You.

The hour is late.  The night comes on,

My celestial self I would become.

Ah!  What wisdom thou gavest to mortal

life--

I,

As sister, mother, daughter, wife--

In earthly roles have seen Thy face.

In my womanly life Thy heavenly place

Is taught through humble tasks and pain.

So, if royal robes I would obtain,

To wear as all Thy glories burst--

I'll need to do the laundry first.

 

                                               --by Jaroldeen Edwards