with a hawkish glare
great focused intensity
producing strides
Tag: determination
Drive
treks of this distance
take a lifetime
not always a straight line
or one foot in front of the other
sometimes hopping on a broken leg
many times crawling
perhaps at times robust enough to run
living doesn’t carry with it
a formula for success
determination, a will to thrive and action
all prerequisites
a dash of luck thrown in
still
success not always achieved
i will not give up
i love myself too much
“My muse is not a god.” Susi Bocks
Targets
go for it
follow your instincts
put your pedal to the metal
full steam ahead
no one tells you as you do
that struggling is a part of the journey
it’s hard work
chasing your dreams
i hope you remember
to be playful and filled with joy
as you hit all those milestones
the markers of your success
Chosen Destiny
life is calling me
the direction always forward
determining what’s next
heading down a path with my name
walking away from your view
walking towards mine
#Whatdoyousee
Image credit – Timur Kozmenko
Sticking To It
When I was younger, I followed the adults before me and made a New Year’s Resolution or two. It’s as if January 1 were some magical day, which that alone ensured success for those things I’d wanted to change. More often than not, I’d fail to follow through. Eventually, I stopped doing that. On the day I decide when I’m frustrated or dissatisfied enough to warrant some change within myself, I do it, whatever that day of the year turns out to be. It seems it works better for me this way.
Loud
kept down
held back
filled with fear
and rage
despair at every turn
me, an unwilling victim
blockades to stop me
turbulence swirling me about
My history embedded a lack of power in me.
Years of criticism, critique, and disgust took its toll.
Thick layers of neglect crusted over on this shell of me.
Defeated, ignored, and scared.
But I dared to feel more important than what the day rolled out.
I fought to experience life exquisitely, with the volume on high.
Determined to engage with this existence full of substance and force.
I clutched myself hard and pushed forward to lean loudly into my future.
Not gonna hide from it anymore.
Evolution
Image Credit – Unknown Creator
I slowly unwrapped the darkness from my shoulders.
My future, in the cards. It seems.
The possible, what is determined by me. It seems.
Is it?
I want the control.
Is it really mine?
Afflicted
The internal battles – agitation, pain, fear – plague us.
It’s a thrashing within.
Dwelling in our emotions.
Acting out in our physical state.
Challenging our mental well-being.
Longing for a release or respite from discomfort.
It can sometimes happen, someday.
And if it does, it comes in the form of a favorable resolution.
Finally, there can be some ease.
Effort gets us to the other side of affliction.
And it makes us who we are.
Shielding
The injurious are on the prowl.
Instinctively my guard goes up.
Hurling words to pierce the psyche.
Expectedly waiting for more of a beat-down.
Another and another and another.
The taunts ricocheting inside me like a ping-pong ball.
Humiliation the game, the victor, no one.
I feel desperate and alone. I want to cry.
Fear, sadness, and agony achieved.
I don’t know how much longer I can take this!
Bored, looking for the next target to feel superior to.
I’m exhausted from this continued abuse.
I NEED TO PUSH MYSELF OVER THE EDGE TO FREEDOM.
Lyrical Yin-Yang
I love this song for so many reasons. But that one line in the chorus “Everything that kills me makes me feel alive…”, that knocked something over in me internally and got my attention. It hooked me hard, the rest of the lyrics just kept pulling me in deeper.
When you think of the Chinese philosophy, this video captures the two principles distinctly. Yin – negative, dark, and feminine and Yang – positive, bright, and masculine whose interaction influences the destinies of creatures and things.
Throughout the music video, you can see the contrast playing out. Hope, despair. Doing life your way, being led. Determination, defeat. Good, evil. Fighting the establishment, following it. Every bit of being engaged in either spectrum will lead you to the results you experience in your life. Fact.
That one line though is the point – we all need to get to our darkest depths to escape and break through to the other side where there’s light. Crumbling from defeat is where life begins again. We have to experience it all to have it be a whole life, to feel complete throughout the entirety of it.
Every time I listen to this, I imagine the tastiness of living fully engaged.
It feels good and bad.
I Write Her 