If You Please

You were born into this world 

To live.

Nothing more is expected of you

Than to move from one day

To the next and exist.

Millions have done it

And it's comfortable to be the same.

Same events, same times, same ideas,

Until it all blends into one gray mass.

Then there are those who rise up

Taking those traits that make us

Separate and above the animals

And move forth to find experiences,

A day to day discovery of the

People, places, things and ideas

That drive our interest and our joy.

Yet in those things, there is also

Danger.

It is in the desire to avoid pain

That a man turns to the bottle

As his true, defining source of relief.

With an eye of an ever alluring

Excitement and enthusiasm,

One can be convinced that

The key to freedom can be found

In the many addictions of a drug.

It is in an attempt to find passion

And appreciation that a man is

Coerced to pleasures of the flesh.

In the attempt to receive those same

Pleasures and be without worry,

Man can be blinded by ambition

And walk a dark road to monetary

Independence.

To live is to chance never 

Making a mark to be remembered by,

While being alive is chasing the

Ever changing landscape in pursuit

Of the most enigmatic and euphoric

Four-leaf clover.

It is our chance to take,

And up to those who make

A pit stop in the movement of our lives

To understand and support

Or stay jaded and skulk away.

A dream is often just

A choice not yet made.

Don't Be Afraid of a Little Discomfort

     It seems so simple to me, the point of living is doing and being and experiencing everything that I can. With so many people locked into their routine and huddled safely in the cell of their comfort zone, how could I possibly hope to illustrate the joy of the unknown? Hiding safely in myopia, what words can illustrate the world awaiting them on the other side of their bias? We all know that our perceptions of events are often misleading and wholly inaccurate, yet still we cling to them as the weathervane of our choices within our reality. 

      What is the allure of the known? Why the fear of doing something unexpected, new? I have had so many great experiences on a flight of fancy, which is in keeping with my bipolar disorder. Even more, I have ignored a perceived ideal of an event to go forward and enjoy a great experience that I would have shunned otherwise. I have learned that there is a beauty to doing things I have never done before, to throw myself upon the fates and see where it winds up. 

      The steady loop of the same things (even going out drinking, as fun as it might be), becomes just another line on a daily checklist of repetition in an event less life. It is funny how people that live this way always feel that life flies by. If the scenery never changes, how can you expect the passage of time to be a real thing? It's all the differences in day to day living that make life stand out; memories made in moments become the mile markers we see on the road behind.  In seeking safety, what many actually get is wasted time and vapid minds.

      But it's only one mans opinion.