Love to Tell You

Remember that song from The Lion King – Can you feel the love tonight?

Simba and Nala - a match made in Heaven

Since today is Valentine’s Day, I hope you can feel a kind of love that is about to come from me to you via this email. 

A certain book has impacted me recently, and I want to share it with you because, well I reckon that’s partly what love is all about – sharing what we’ve found by personal experience to be beneficial to us, in the hope that it will also be good for those we care about. The book is called Lola in the Mirror by local Queensland author, Trent Dalton. Just 30 minutes after finishing this Brisbane based book, I found a poem flooding onto the page. Here it is:

The Flooder

Have just finished the book,

Lola in the Mirror.

The message is clear –

My life is a river.

All the moments lived,

All the chances given,

All the karma lived out.

Took for granted my Heaven.

Born into a loving family,

Had everything I could need:

Wealth, health, education,

A healthy body received.

But where would I be now?

Who would ‘Jen Compton’ be,

If she’d been dealt different cards?

Not the Royal Flush I can see.

Trent, the Flooder,

Has given Brisbanites a jewel.

I walk a mile in their shoes,

Now no judgement, just fuel.

Fuel for this deluded mind,

Seeing myself as up high.

Like in Man’s Search for Meaning.

Denied love we shall die.

I’m connected to travellers

Through past passion and pain,

And just like the alchemist,

With what I’ve got, I must train.

I listen, look and I’m grateful.

I feel it’s all part of the plan,

To play the cards I’ve been dealt;

To support my fellow (wo)man

I can fight against the current,

Or relax and be taken.

The blood in my veins

Wants to flow free, not be shaken.

Each of us has our story,

Yep, we’re each on our own path.

Charlie, Christina and Erica;

Look in your mirror and ask.

For no one can tell us,

This is right, this is wrong.

We each need to start

From where we’ve come from.

For we’re all Becoming,

Each trying to find our own way,

As we wake up each morning,

And think, shit, a new day.

Our dreams keep us going,

And your kindness does too.

We’ve all got obligations

That help us each day push through.

So, here’s to your magic mirror,

And to the beautiful you.

Whoever you are.

You’ve got this. Be true. ©

Jen Compton

07.02.2024

My mother’s 86th birthday Love, Jen