Ithaka

Birthday presents are fun, but there's nothing better than a thoughtful one.  I received a book today with a note that read, "see page 29 for Ithaka", and it took me a moment to remember the conversation I had with this friend, one of many, where I've talked about how much I long for a  permanent home, a place of rest for a weary well-traveled soul.  I had called it my "Ithaca".  Just last night, I thought about how much I never want to board a plane again, never want to pack another suitcase, never want to rent a U-Haul truck to shuffle from one place to another.  I thought about how much I just wanted to reach "Ithaca", for the journey to be over, at least for a season.  But it's a funny thing, how the timing of good friends always seems impeccable.  As I read the poem on page 29, I was reminded of the fact that life is so much more than just an Ithaca.  It's a journey that may never bring you one, and a well-rested soul is one that has learned that a home isn't what makes you happy, it's happiness that makes you a home, wherever life may take you.  So I thank that friend for her thoughtfulness and her impeccable timing.  It is exactly what this soul needed to hear.  

Ithaka
C.P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.