Simplicity Sobriety Regularity Industry

 

Simplicity, sobriety, regularity, and industry

This is what we need to strive for when we return

We may be the prodigal sons and daughters

But respect and restoration can always be re-earned.

 

To be simple is important

Have a simple goal

Such as I will take up right work, and do that right work right

However different, humble, straightforward, and mundane the role.

 

To be sober is important

So many reasons to list

For physical and mental health, for safety, to use money and time wisely

To mend relationships, and to foolish and illegal acts resist.

 

To be regular is important

Because all character strengths must be restored

If you are on time, dependable, responsible, and start being a person of your word

You show real change that's hard to ignore.

 

Industry is important

You have to show you have moved from taking and breaking to helping, serving, and bringing

This is how you put the past behind you

This is how you leave behind, the previous life you were living and its misgivings.

 

Simplicity, sobriety, regularity, and industry

This is how you draw a curtain on your past

Bad doesn't always stay bad, hopeless doesn't always stay hopeless

Seize the opportunity to change the role into which you were by your own will, or accidentally cast.

 

Simplicity, sobriety, regularity, and industry

This is what we need to strive for when we return

We may be the prodigal sons and daughters

But respect and restoration can always be re-earned.

When You Walk Into A Door

 

When you walk into a door

Does peace walk into the door?

Or does chaos walk into the door?

 

What crosses the floor with you?

What crosses the floor?

 

When you walk into a door

Does a calamity waiting to happen walk into the door?

Or does grace and wisdom walk into the door?

 

What crosses the floor with you?

What crosses the floor?

 

When you walk into a door

Does harmony walk into the door?

Or does discord walk into the door?

 

What crosses the floor with you?

What crosses the floor?

 

When you walk into a door

Does darkness walk into the door?

Or does light and illumination walk into the door?

 

What crosses the floor with you?

What crosses the floor?

 

When you walk into a door

Does gentleness walk into the door?

Or does harshness walk into the door?

 

What crosses the floor with you?

What crosses the floor?

 

When you walk into a door

Does friction walk into the door?

Or does understanding and cooperation walk into the door?

 

What crosses the floor with you?

What crosses the floor?

 

When you walk into a door

Does dishonesty and corruption walk into the door?

Or does integrity and purity of heart walk into the door?

 

What crosses the floor with you?

What crosses the floor?

 

Chaos, calamity, discord, darkness, harshness, friction, corruption

Peace, grace, harmony, light, gentleness, understanding, pureness of heart

 

Any and all of these things

All and any of these things

Can walk into a door with you

 

Any and all of these things

All and any of these things

Can cross the floor with you

 

It’s up to you. 

Yes, it's up to you.

 

What you let walk in the door with you

What you let cross the floor with you

 

When you walk into a door!

I Am A Lonely Sock

 

I am a lonely sock

My partner is lost somewhere

Not sure if they are in a closet drawer

Or in a trash bin somewhere. 

 

Please look for my partner

I have provided a picture for you

Bright pink at cuff, toe, and heel

My partner is super hella cool.

 

My partner has lost some of its threads

This I am embarrassed to say

Our owner didn't bother to mend it, being at the heel

So it saddened me to see my partner's threads become barer each day.

 

Still I loved my partner

And after the first wash, we tied the knot

We didn't say till dryer do us part

But you can bet, we suffered dryer separation anxiety quite a lot.

 

My partner is soft and cozy

Maybe I am partial because we used to be a pair

The other socks here in this drawer say that's nothing special

I listen, but I don't care.

 

In spite of the bare threads, and the other socks joshing and saying "Gosh, darn it"

My partner was special to me

It might have been worse for the wear

But still we were compatible, and I thought my partner pretty dandy.

 

We used to belong to a gal

I know she liked us a lot

She kept us when she got us one Christmas

…Though she received a WD storage device, Brita water filters, and what not.

 

She used us more than all those other things

In fact, she wore us every day to bed

If one of us came off, and got lost in the sheets at night

Not to show off, but it would give her the utmost distress.

 

It made us feel so grand, you should know

The fact that this special place in her life we occupied

Then suddenly, one wash day it ended

And my partner was gone from my side.

 

That fateful day, our owner, distracted

Left my partner in a washing or drying machine

This is how from being a pair, I became a single lonely sock

A dreaded fate I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams.

 

So now I am just a lonely sock

Sitting in a closet drawer

Feeling sorry for myself

…Because this is not what I bargained for.

 

Please if you see my partner

Tell them I will wait for them forever more

And until such time we are reunited

I will sit here being lonely in this closet drawer.

 

Sigh! If I could turn back time!

Dear Reader...this post was inspired by a recent laundry experience, when after my laundry was done, I found there was a bunch of socks missing, leaving the odd socks left unusable.  Later, I found the missing socks tucked into the folds of some washed fitted sheets. By then, this poem was hatched and written. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Some Things Are Momentary

Some things are momentary

Some things last

What's in your present or future

May not have been in your past.

 

Some friendships are for a time in your life

Some friendships last

The friends in your present

May not be the friends in your future or past.

 

Some jobs and hobbies you do for a while

Some jobs and hobbies are forever

The jobs and hobbies that currently occupy you

May not have been in your past endeavors.

 

Chance brings us things

That may not have been there before

We increase our chances of new things

Every new thing we decide to explore.

 

Some ideas we take from our parents

Some ideas we take from what we learn, who we meet, and where we roam

Don't be surprised if the ideas in your present or past

Are not the ideas FUTURE YOU will cheerfully or happily own.

 

When it comes to heroes, and what you worship

Some figures and beliefs, will for a time enchant

All it takes is an incident, or new learning or growing

And then suddenly you wake up, as if from a trance.

This is the way of life and its changes

The water is continuously churning

Bubbles are being burst constantly

And new ways of thinking, living, being, and learning keep emerging.

 

There will be new ways of talking, acting, dressing

New ways of singing, loving, eating, communicating, and so on

We have to decide whether to adapt to the times

Or to resist reality, and run the risk of feeling isolated, bitter, and forlorn.

 

Nothing can be predicted

We can't tell what will last or continue to be validated

Many of the ideas and concepts we think are as solid as rock

Could fall by the wayside, and become discredited or outdated.

 

Yes, some things are momentary

And some things last

Remember, what's in your present or future

May not have been in your past.

My Time

 

My time to walk the roads my ancestors walked and some new ones

My time to stumble along the way and get up when I fall

My time to learn that every day is a new day

My time to learn to listen for the right call.

 

My time to learn what to say yes to and no to

My time to learn how to work and how to play

My time to learn when something is worth pursuing

My time to learn when to call it a day.

 

My time to learn how to deal with problems

My time to learn when to use my voice

My time to learn how to make a judgment

My time to learn how to exercise a choice.

 

My time to learn which opportunities to take

My time to learn which are better passed on

My time to learn when to dig in my heels

My time to learn when I should move on.

 

My time to know when and what to disagree on

My time to find the right way to do that

My time to know when to keep at it

My time to know when to throw in the hat.

 

My time to have a program and a system

My time to know the best way to spend my day

My time to fit in work and play

My time to make my ideas and energy pay.

 

My time to manage my resources

My money, my assets, and all I have got

My time to know that even though I may start with a little

I could eventually end up with a lot.

 

Yes, it's my time to walk the same roads my ancestors did

Plus some new ones as they present to me

Watch out world, here I come

Ready to seize time, and create my own destiny.

 

Dear Reader, this post is dedicated to the young and to the ever young people in my life, which includes you. I see a world full of possibilities for you – just waiting to be seized. Here’s to seizing those possibilities and making 2021 a year where you give your life (and the people in it) the best of what is within you, some of which is known, and some of which is unknown, and will excitingly surface. Just like you did so many surprising and amazing things in 2020 you never predicted you would do, 2021 is rich with promise and secret treasures. Cast your net wide for the most interesting catches. Happy New Year to all of you!