Fighting the Demons

To reach out of your darkness is one of the hardest things you can do.  

Who do you turn to?  

No. They're going through enough right now.  

No. They don't have the time.

No. You've been very disappointing to them lately.

No.  Why would you want to bring this upon them when they finally reached a good place?

You'll always have excuses, and so you leave yourself to fight it alone.  

Sometimes you win.  You pull yourself out of your funk and rejoin the life you're working so hard to maintain.  

Sometimes you lose.  Your demons take over.  They tell you all the lies that you so easily believe.

And then you just stop.

You stop working toward your goals.  You stop creating.  You stop imagining.  You fall into your darkness and you've left yourself with...

Nothing.  

You don't have the tools because your demons told you they were not working.  You don't have anyone to turn to because your demons told you all the excuses.  You don't have any light because they worked so hard to diminish your flame.  

They hid everyone and everything around you in the darkness.

This is when you need your tools and your people the most.  Reach out.  Get it out of you somehow.  Write it down and burn the page if you have to.  Don't be afraid to express it somehow.  Don't listen when you hear them tell you that you're only doing it for the attention. Even those who are, they still need something.  Don't listen when you hear them tell you that your situation is not as bad as others.  If it is bad enough to stop you being you, it's bad enough for you to need help.

Your flame may be gone, but there's still a spark.  It may not be glowing in the area you want it to, but it's somewhere.  Find it.  Let it glow where it's at.  Cultivate it in its place and let it reignite into a flame there.  That's where you need to focus because that's where your fragile little light has landed.  Work with it there, and soon it will grow, and begin to shine on other areas.  

And show you that you were never alone.

Time

Time is kinetic.  Always passing us. Giving us new moments while taking away the old ones.  All we have is our memory, our anticipation, as our now is merely a moment we’ve anticipated as it becomes a memory.

Time is constant. The way it passes us never changes, though our perception of it does. An hour can feel like an eternity, while a year can feel like it barely ever happened.

Time is linear. There’s no going back.  You can only make the best of the lessons you learned in your past so you can work on improving your future.

Time is limited.  Once it’s gone...

There are two ways to look at passing time.

You can look at where you expected to be at this point in your life.  Compare yourself to your current goals.  Contemplate the dreams you have out there, and overwhelm yourself with the realization of all the work that still needs to be done for those to become a reality.

Time may be linear, but life is everything but.  It’s full of diversions, setbacks, plot twists, and entanglements.  The days that come and go that are focused on other people’s goals.  The path that led to a dead end.  The crazy things people do that take up your limited time.  The things in life that must be attended to in order to keep on living.  It would be great if we could envision a goal, along with the most direct path, and all the tools we need to conquer that path, but how often does that actually happen?

We all have our distractions.  Our disappointments.  Our fiascos...

Or you can look at where you were when you last stopped to take stock of your time.  See how far you’ve come.  See all the obstacles you’ve overcome.  How you’ve grown.  How many lives you’ve touched.  Things that are now a reality because of you.

They say life is messy, but that’s because it’s so full.  It’s full of friendships, accomplishments, memories, and most importantly, love.  The people who walk into your life and show that they’ve intended to stay.  The days you hold your head up, look at the impossible feat and say, “Yeah, I did that!”  The feeling as you wield your sword amidst another uphill battle.  The hugs, the talks, the tears and the trust.  Without all these things, life wouldn’t be very messy, but it also wouldn’t be very complete.

We all have our blessings.  Our favors.  Our light…

Time may constantly pass us by and never come back, but we are gifted with the ability to recall what is has given us.  Remember all the diversions, setbacks, plot twists and entanglements.  Remember all the friendships, accomplishments, memories and love.  Embrace them.  Keep them in your goal’s story.  Cherish them. They are what makes the story great.

Savored Slowly

I am meant to be savored slowly

Experienced piece by piece

Just a taste,  a touch,  a tiny memory

That's all you'll get from me

At first

Once you get acquainted with this divine dine

You know you'll want to keep

Absorb me into your beautiful world

Slow down,  every portion’s too sweet

Too rich,  too full,  too much for one sitting

I am a feast to parse out for days

Focusing on each delight

The pairings within me must be relished carefully

Bit by bit,  plate by plate,  bite by bite

You mustn't be hasty,  try as you might

Too much of a good thing often is true

That's how most of the tragedies start

So you see I am meant to be savored slowly

Take your time to enjoy this piece of art 

Sunrise

Let’s talk about abstract concepts

Your theory on invisibility

My take on moles

Let's look at the world

In the gold

Shining through our window from the morning sun passing through the dewdrops on the maple

Let’s stay up all night

Sing songs we write

Share our comforts with our sadness

And pass each other hope

Hope that tomorrow will be better and we’ll keep climbing that ladder and reach our higher ground

Hope that we’ll continue to be together in spite of the world around us and all it’s hollow sound

Savage Beasts

We are not the savage beasts

Who live in tiny huts

We have gigantic houses

Stocked up with useless stuff

We are not the savage beasts

Who hunt and gather to eat

We have fancy pre made foods

Laced with Aspartame and MSG

We are not the cavemen

That chased large game off cliffs

We use machines that go nowhere

In order to stay fit

We are not the savage beasts

We don’t rely on community

We lock ourselves in daily

To enjoy central air and reality tv

We are not the savage beasts

Baring it all and swinging free

We cover with our color code

And shame those who need to pee

We are not the primitive tribes

Shaping and polishing rocks for knives

Our weapons come in all shapes and size

With hundreds of ways to kill

We are not the savage beasts

With paint on our face, no shoes on our feet

We’ve only the best in war technology

If we don’t protect ourselves, who will?

Resources may be limited, but we really don’t care

It’s ours for the taking, not ours for the share!

Earned our time off, now we must use it well

We don’t sleep in tents, just a big dumb hotel!

Eyes closed to your plight, as we stand tall

We don’t want your problems, so we’ll build a wall!

You’ve done us wrong, best be careful my son

Instead of understanding, we will carry more guns!

Eradicate a nation in the name of peace

When accomplished, we’ll throw a lavish feast!

See, we are nothing like those savage beasts!

But in a way, somehow, we still tend to be.

Standing on the ledge

Standing on the ledge

She’s ready to plunge

She’s prepared for this time and again

“What if I fall?”

“Oh, but what if you fly?”

Either way, this time idle must end

She looks to her right

For that encouraging smile

Someone to help find the chords

She looks to herself

For the courage to dive

For the strength to show others her words

She's going to fly

She just has to try

And all of her dreams will come true

She's going to bound

High into the clouds

There is nothing that she cannot do

My Day With Art

When you get so close you see the cracks on the surface,
heavy globs of paint,
tiny brush strokes filled with pain

When you get so close you feel what has been felt,
egos start to melt,
sadness secures it's belt

When you look into the eye of an honorable guy,
you want him to help you fly,
but you think he's just a spy

When you get so close you see the flaws,
you know their cause,
you're forced to pause

When you get so close you smell her hair,
Tousled as she doesn't care
Wandering blissfully unaware

When you get so close you see the scars,
randomly arranged like stars,
dancing on a map to Mars

When you get so close all your illusions are destroyed,
you've lost your sense of joy,
life is no longer your toy

You see everything that built this
Every moment that could be
You live, you love, you enlighten
It's that moment when you know
You are free