When I started loving myself

[Rosmarie Heusser]

 

A poem by Charlie Chaplin written on his 70th birthday on April 16, 1959:

 

When I started loving myself

I understood that I’m always and at any given opportunity

in the right place at the right time.

And I understood that all that happens is right –

from then on I could be calm.

Today I know: It’s called TRUST.

 

When I started to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody

When I tried to force my desires on this person,

even though I knew the time is not right and the person was not ready for it,

and even though this person was me.

Today I know: It’s called LETTING GO

 

When I started loving myself

I could recognize that emotional pain and grief

are just warnings for me to not live against my own truth.

Today I know: It’s called AUTHENTICALLY BEING.

 

When I started loving myself

I stopped longing for another life

and could see that everything around me was a request to grow.

Today I know: It’s called MATURITY.

 

When I started loving myself

I stopped depriving myself of my free time

and stopped sketching further magnificent projects for the future.

Today I only do what’s fun and joy for me,

what I love and what makes my heart laugh,

in my own way and in my tempo.

Today I know: it’s called HONESTY.

 

When I started loving myself

I escaped from all what wasn’t healthy for me,

from dishes, people, things, situations

and from everyhting pulling me down and away from myself.

In the beginning I called it the “healthy egoism”,

but today I know: it’s called SELF-LOVE.

 

When I started loving myself

I stopped wanting to be always right

thus I’ve been less wrong.

Today I’ve recognized: it’s called HUMBLENESS.

 

When I started loving myself

I refused to live further in the past

and worry about my future.

Now I live only at this moment where EVERYTHING takes place,

like this I live every day and I call it CONSCIOUSNESS.

When I started loving myself

I recognized, that my thinking

can make me miserable and sick.

When I requested for my heart forces,

my mind got an important partner.

Today I call this connection HEART WISDOM.

 

We do not need to fear further discussions,

conflicts and problems with ourselves and others

since even stars sometimes bang on each other

and create new worlds.

Today I know: THIS IS LIFE!

[Rosmarie Heusser]

Yes, I agree with You. ∼

[Eva Libre]

We do not change anything on the blog. People can read the comments. He is wonderful, your blog, poem written by Kim and Alison McMillen!

[Eva Libre]

So, now we have certainty, but it is a pity that it is not from Chaplin. But I am glad that you have been answered. - Ein Traum geht zu Ende -.

[Rosmarie Heusser]

I wonder about the idea that Charlie Chaplin wrote that poem on his 70th birthday, April 1959

[Rosmarie Heusser]

Dear unique Eva

As I didn't receive an answer from Géraldine, I posted this question yesterday on an other Chaplin facebook page. Below is the replay I received today:

Chaplin Office <[e-mail]>

To:Rosmarie Heusser

Jun 6 at 9:42 AM

Dear Rosmarie

Thank you for your email

There are two texts circulating in many different translations called « Letter to my daughter » and «  when I began to love myself »  supposedly written by Chaplin.  The Chaplin office receives many enquiries about them every year, and even requests for permission to publish them such as yours.  These texts were NOT written by Charlie Chaplin.   

 

We have recently found on the internet, but this may not be true either (!) that about 30 years ago Farajollah Saba an Iranian journalist wrote the “letter to my daughter”  for an Iranian magazine under the title  “Fantasy” but the publisher forgot to include the “Fantasy” title above the letter.   So this may be the correct explanation for Letter to my Daughter. 

As for When I began to love myself… it comes from a book called  When I Loved Myself Enough by Kim and Alison McMillen

 

Kind regards

Arnold Lozano

Roy Export S.A.S.
58 rue Jean Jacques Rousseau
75001 Paris - France
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
official site : www.charliechaplin.com
Image bank: photo.charliechaplin.com 

social sites : chaplin's official facebook page

[Eva Libre]

You are unique Rosmarie! Thanks for this brilliant idea!

[Rosmarie Heusser]

Yesterday night I wrote on Géraldine Chaplin's Facebook-page the question if this profound poem was written by her Father or not — telling her what some people said and adding also the poem and the link below. I hope that she will answer!  

[Eva Libre]

I'm totally confused, please read the comments on this blog. Why can not we find a link to Chaplin's original?

Apart from this uncertainty, your blog is wonderful, and my thoughts go in the direction that Kim McMillen , who was very young, was more inspired by Charlie Chaplin's poem.

http://www.lifeintherightdirection.com/charlie-chaplin-began-to-lov...

[Rosmarie Heusser]

I didn't knew that it could be from someone else. — I would like to ask his family! 

[Eva Libre]

Wonderful. And you're sure it's from Chaplin?