Elli Michler | I wish you Time

I don't wish you all sorts of gifts.

I just wish you, what most people don't have.

I wish you the time to be happy and to laugh

and if you use it, you can make something out of it.

I wish you the time for your doings and thinking,

not only for yourself, but also to give away.

I wish you the time - not to hastle and run,

but the time to know how to be contented.

I wish you the time - not to pass just like that.

I wish that some of it may be left for you

as a time to marvel and (as a time) to trust,

instead of just looking at the time on your watch.

I wish you the time to reach for the stars,

and the time to grow, that means to mature.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I wish you the time to hope anew and to love.

There is no sense in putting this time off.

I wish you the time to find yourself,

to see the happiness in each day and each hour.

I wish you the time also to forgive.

I wish you: the time to live!

Elli Michler in "Dir zugedacht", Don Bosco Verlag, München

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Elli Michler (1923-2014) was a German poet.

Elli Michler was born on 12 February 1923 in Würzburg, Germany, at a time of rampant inflation, political unrest and economic crisis.

She was an only child and she had a happy and sheltered childhood despite the difficult times.

She lived with her mother, who suffered from severe hearing loss, her father, who was a businessman, and her grandmother, of whom she was particularly fond.

She was still a young student when the Nazis shut down her convent school, bringing an abrupt end to her education before she had the chance to get any qualifications.

Having completed a year of compulsory civilian service, she was sent to work for an industrial group in Würzburg shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, in which her father was called up to fight from the very beginning.

After 6 years of horror, monotonous work and aerial warfare that destroyed her cherished hometown, she volunteered to work on the reconstruction of the University of Würzburg.

This proved to be a turning point in the life of Elli Michler, who was still longing for an education.

At around the same time, she met the man who would be the great love of her life: "MM", a former prisoner of war who had been displaced from Breslau and started his studies in Würzburg in great poverty.

Three years later they married, after she had graduated in economics and he had completed his training as a grammar school teacher.

With great regret, the young couple had to leave their beloved Würzburg after the birth of a daughter.

Hesse was the only place where job opportunities were available, so the family moved first to Frankfurt am Main and then in 1961 finally settled in Bad Homburg.

Throughout her life, Elli Michler felt a fundamental need to write and derived great joy from it.

However, after the physical and emotional stress linked to taking care of elderly parents and to their passing away, she was able to fully devote herself to writing.

Consequently, her poems - which she wrote about any topic that moved her - were not published until her later years.

Nonetheless, they went on to enjoy huge, unexpected success that has continued to the present day.

Elli Michler died on 18 November 2014 at the age of 91.