Tag: philosophy

It’s Enough

It’s Enough

I’ve seen enough suffering

Maybe had a little too much too

Even if it’s just a drop in the ocean of pain

Even if my blessings are still too many to count

And I should thank God every day

Still sometimes I feel the weight

Making every step a little harder than the last

So I don’t see the point in adding more

Just to get ahead

Just to serve selfish ends

Even if it seems the world is designed

For those willing to take advantage

I refuse.

I don’t know if my life will leave any marks on this world

That will echo more than a few years

I honestly suspect it won’t

In the end that’s ok

But I won’t give up

In every step I take

I will try

Try to do no harm

Try to do one small thing at a time to help

To leave this world just a little better

Than I found it

And that’s enough.

In Pieces

In Pieces

The first time I went away from home
I think I was not sure of myself
Whether I would find a new home
Whether I was worthy of love
And could find it with people who were not bound to me
By an accident of the time and place of our birth
But I did find friends
And lovers
More than once
Not always perfect fits
But close enough
Everyone has a small piece of the divine spark

And I moved from home to home many times
And always found people whose souls
Would resonate, at least a little, with mine
Until eventually I found myself
Love for me
Just the way I am
But it’s interesting
That since I was young
In some ways I set myself apart
People like to do things for others
It’s one of my favorite things
But somehow I wanted to do things by myself
Never rely on others
I deprive them of the thing I crave most
And I still don’t like to ask people for things
I’d rather figure it out on my own
Do it on my own

I’m not really sure why
It’s not because I fear someone to say no
I have grown comfortable with discomfort
And I feel that I am enough
No matter what others think
I think it’s because I don’t want to trouble others
I fear more that someone would say yes
Despite not wanting to
Or to say no and feel bad
I don’t want to be a burden, to ask for precious pieces of someone that they’d rather keep
But why?

In the end it must come back to me
It always does
Some myth of myself I hold too dear
The easiest one to fool is the one in the mirror
I want to believe
That I am infinite
That I am unbreakable
And I can give out little pieces of myself
Over and over again
And never take something back
Sometimes I really think I am
But somewhere deep inside
I remember times
Where I gave too much
And started to crack
Even if I didn’t let it show
Where there weren’t so many pieces left to give

And so maybe I should try to learn
To protect myself a little
To slow down
To give less freely
And keep some of the important pieces for myself
Or someone who will keep them safe.

I Miss You

I Miss You

I don’t remember when you were born
I was too young
But I have seen the pictures
The smile on my face
A new brother to love.
But those days, I didn’t see three feet past my nose
Absorbed in my inner world
The things I could learn
The stories I could live
But you were always watching me, I think,
My every move
Maybe I taught you some bad habits
But I know now you just wanted a part of me
A little bit of attention reflected back
Where so much was given.
And we fought and fought
Time and time again
And it really hurt
You didn’t pull punches
Never gave up.
I was the older brother
Should be smarter, should be wiser
But in time (too much time)
I saw you were right
That the world outside our minds is what is worth living for
The small sliver where my world intersects with yours.
It’s not the things we learn, the things we achieve that make life worth living.
It’s the things we build with others, the small acts of kindness, the moments of love and friendship.
I learned so much from you.
I hope you knew.
I will forever be grateful.
I will forever miss you.

Echoes

Echoes

I hope that from the moment you entered this world, you knew love
I did
In the soft touch of my mothers hand
As we crossed the street
And the gaze of all my family
I brought that with me
Time after time
Finding love is easy
But enduring is not always
But the old cliche is true
It’s better to lose than to never have
To build up walls and lock yourself away
Because I am made up of many pieces
Of those I’ve loved
Family
Friends
Lovers
Small things like
Angel food cake with cool whip and strawberries
Peeps marshmallow candy
Fried chicken a little too burnt
A dogfish head IPA

Flip flops in the dead of winter
The smell of smoke lingering on a sofa
A favorite band we saw together

A big smile and a pat on the back
Or an aperol spritz by a lake
Every thought I have
Every move I make contains
Echoes of those I love now
Those I’ve loved and lost
A beautiful symphony
I never want to fade
Until I’m gone
And the whisper echoes in the minds
Of those that love me.

The next right thing

The next right thing

I’m not sure what controls this world
Or what its motivations are
I think the safest thing to believe
Is nothing at all
Pure randomness
And the free will we exercise together
In this grand mosaic of planet earth
Weaving together the history of our world
One thread at a time
And so, each day is precious
Each moment each decision
Each good day and every ray of sun
Because in a moment the wind can change
And blow it all away.
It happens all the time
To people far better than me
But no matter what life throws at me
I will always pop up
And a smile will arise again
Today
Tomorrow
In sixty years
Till I draw my last breath
Because the only thing I can control
Is my own actions
And what I do with what I am given
And I always hope
Always want
For it to be
The next right thing.

A warm bright spot

A warm bright spot

This world contains multitudes
It’s not one or the other
For every day full of sunshine and warmth
There’s a storm waiting to darken the sky
That will, too, eventually pass
And there’s often no sense
No reason
Why some get more of one
And some more of the other
And some not enough of either.
And I am just one small part of this world
One weightless drop of water,
One small beam of light,
But I am a part of it
It’s shape and feel
It’s light and darkness
So I seek to be a small, warm, bright spot
A gentle place to take a rest
Before moving on the way
And I seek not to take
But to give
Not to win
But to build
Not to hate
But to love
And I know I will fail sometimes
But I hope to succeed more times
And I hope you join me
And the world becomes a little warmer and brighter
Together.

How to help

How to help

I saw it on the news again
The same sad story
A man the world forgot
Neglected, didn’t shelter
Acting out a little
Crying out in pain
In a way that was inconvenient to society
His light extinguished too soon
By a violent wind
And I stand here
Lost in thought
Asking how to solve the problem
Asking where it comes from
And how I play a role
How can I help my fellow man?
When sometimes I feel I can hardly take care of myself
But that’s nothing
Compared to what he lived
But this problem is so big
And each of our parts is so small
It can feel hopeless
But that’s not a reason not to try
So I hope the next time I can do something
Something small or large
To help ease someone’s pain
I will do it
Without a seconds thought
And that there are millions just like me
Thinking the same.

Thoughts on Hate

Thoughts on Hate

They say that anger is what pain and fear look like when they show themselves in public. An animal threatened, lashing out to intimidate and diffuse the threat. A preemptive strike. Protecting self, covering insecurities that whisper “they will win, we will lose.” Coming from a mindset of scarcity. This country belongs to me and the people like me. But I believe that all people are like me. I believe that when we broaden the sphere of community, we become stronger, we gain talents and allies we could not previously imagine. I believe that when I help you rise, I don’t sink. Instead, we can both reach new heights we couldn’t achieve alone.

 

It’s easy now to hate. Whether you are hiding behind a computer screen, a campaign podium, or your identity- religion, nationality, gender- it’s all too easy to forget that the other person is a human being. It’s easy when you don’t have to see the frown lines etched onto the human face, the tears pouring down cheeks from downcast eyes that see just like yours. When you don’t have to see the widow shrieking in grief, and struggling to provide for her children for years to come. When you don’t have to see the child struggling to breathe, bleeding in the street. But just because your head is buried beneath grains of sand, just because you squeeze your eyes shut, willing yourself not to see, doesn’t mean the world disappears, doesn’t change the truth. We all share the same DNA, the same earth. We all have eyes, if they are a different shape. We all have skin, if it is a different color. We all think, if we have different ideas. We all love those we feel are close to us. We are all cousins, we are all humans. It’s time we start acting like it.

Live

Live

 

Give friendship, give trust freely and without cause-

Make fast friends, slow enemies.

If others hurt you, take advantage of you, persevere:

Succeed even when they stack all odds against you.

Forgive others who harm you, but remember to protect yourself in the future.

Keep your expectations low and be prepared to do it all yourself

Let kindness from others amaze you as the wonderful gift it is.

Help others, go above an beyond expectations

Not with any expectation of benefit, but because you want to.

Take joy in raising others up and raise yourself up even when others push you down.

Realize that this is your own personal truth, not the same as anyone else’s

Not better, not worse,

And that the only universal wrong is the intentional harm of others.

Live this life. You may not always be happy. You may not always succeed.

But I truly hope that you will always find peace.

 

Beliefs

Beliefs

I believe in passion and determination above talent.
I believe in effort above absolute success.
I believe in health above aesthetics, above weight.
I believe in meaning above happiness, above comfort.
I believe in experience above material goods.
I believe in collaboration above adversarial competition.
I believe in the value an action provides others above what advantage it lends me.
Above all these things, above wealth, above power,
I believe in love.