Nature's Course

the moon can turn
the sun can burn
the skies can give us rain
nature's course
unbridled force
a torrent to restrain

Bringing Up the Rear

It is the first day of the new year and I have been contemplating my resolutions all day.  I am no different than the mass majority that strives to be better, lose weight, accomplish more and venture out of my comfort zone, yet unlike the masses, I do not want to set myself up for another failed attempt and so, I have unearthed what might be my most brilliant idea, since I started writing this blog.  I have decided to use reverse psychology.  I have decided to start my year, as my typical year usually ends.  I have determined that it is entirely more realistic for me to continue on my excessive patterns of eating and drinking at will, slotherly exercise routines that wax and wane with the moons cycles and lazy days of limited accomplishment and virtually no motivation to change.  If I start at the bottom and work my way back, I will avoid the rush of the fickle, physical enthusiasts, that storm the gym like an army of ants attacking a bread crumb that lies within their venerated domain, swarming and gathering in mass numbers, all to receive their piece of the prize.  While the ambitious congregate, I will be weening myself off the excesses of chocolate and alcohol I have established as part of my daily diet.  My routine will be easier to break if I am not forced to go cold turkey, after building up a tolerance most drunks and obese would struggle to attain. My body will not be thrown into a detox that instills cold sweats and the shakes from the sudden withdrawal of sugar and hops.  I will allow a more gentler transition from my over indulgence to my more tempered restraint.  By the time the masses have tired of their ambitious and restrictive goals, I will be ready to turn the keg in for a kettle ball.  I will be ready to set goals and actually work toward accomplishment, rather than rolling over and sleeping in for the seventh day in a row.  I will be tackling the mountain while everyone else is sliding down.  I will end my year better that I started it and everyone else will be so far gone, they'll need a Sherpa to get them back on track.
Now this is a resolution I can definitely handle.  Starting the New Year, bringing up the rear...Bottoms Up!!!

Permission to Cry

When the world delivers an enormous disappointment
an unfathomable and incomprehensible act
We are left with our own thoughts and prayers
We hope that the world will not travel this road again
and yet we know we have visited this disquiet before
And we are left with a scar so deep,
the only foreseeable salve is permission to cry
for a change

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