I Can Kick the Can

I can remember playing kick the can.  I had the best hiding spot.  For some reason, the seekers kept passing by, yet they never saw me.  Each time, as they approached, I got that nervous, excited tremor throughout my body.  My heart would start to race and yet my anxiety made me freeze.  I was the only one left not found and my entire team was "in jail", but I could not bring myself to try and run out from my spot and kick the can.  I was frozen with fear. I had the power to free my team, but could not break out of the safety of my hiding spot.  I did not want to try, because I did not want to fail, but in not trying, I assured my own failure, and with that failure came an anticlimactic end to the game.
When I think back on this, I realize, not much has changed.  I am still afraid to try.  In some oddly demented way, I am preserving an image I have of myself.  If I don't go all out, I always know I can do better, but if I try my hardest and still lose, well then I truly am a loser.  Funny when I look at it this way, I can see what I think I am doing, but if I continue to hold back, I'll never know if I measure up the way I think I do.  I know I can win, now it's just a matter of letting myself go for it.  The mere act of trying will be my success.  I can kick that can and free myself from the limiting confines of my hiding spot, one can crushing moment at a time!!

Paw Prints Moving Grace

A dog gives you loyalty and eyes that warm your soul

companionship and comfort that makes your heart feel whole,

eternal friends and harmony, as their dog tags jing-a-ling

and when their presence leaves us, their absence sorely stings

The ever present greeter, is no longer there

a house so full of life, may now seem oh so bare

No tapping of their claws on your freshly polished floors

gone are the sounds of their rhythmic, doggie snores

A water bowl now silenced, a leash that's put to rest

cherish all the memories of your once endearing pet

Holly touched your hearts and reserved there, her own place

and etched now there within, are her paw prints moving grace

Live & Learn

When we think we know all the answers

the draw of the pursuit vanishes

and we stop living

allowing the inevitable descent

of existence

into a state of arrogance, indolence, 

and a life without purpose

Infectious Failure

The reality of my failing 

is as blatant as the weeds in my yard

No matter how hard I work,

a tap root has cemented itself in the clay

modeling a snare of suffocation

spawning seeds of invasive and deplorable quality

Until all that remains is useless excess

Offering no value 

and infectious in its state