A poem that celebrates the virtues of not arriving

Ithaca by Cavafy is named after the most famous destination in world literature. 

The poem speaks of a life’s journey’s whose virtue is not in arriving at a destination, but in the journey toward. It was Mark Twain who said, Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Some lines from Ithaca, in honor of April, the month of Poetry—best kept secret—a daily dose of poetry is a vitamin for the spirit. 

Hope your journey is long,
Full of adventure, full of awakening…
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time…
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years…