Personal

- for Sharon, both of us in our 40th year

I work for retirement,
I live for vacation twice a year.

My life is defined by my associations, my relationships.
My goal in life is to achieve total self-reliance, as it is for all men.

I take inventory, and don't allow
myself to dwell on the bad past.

I act my age, any age.
Time passes the same.

I take it one day at a time,
one weekend of breath to the next.

I do not want to change the world
because I have had my fill of it.

Where I once saw the world as an ocean of knowledge
to be swum through, I see myself today sailing upon it.

When new ideas grew like trees above a canopy of colossal minds,
I joined and grew my own until I saw the forest old.

I now find reasons where I once saw mystery.

I see your truth is yours, and my truth is mine.

I recognize facts, I entertain ideals.

I can relax because some things are sure things,
like love and respect and revolution.

I no longer define myself through direction of my energies,
nor by accumulation of stuff or experience.

I opt not for the revealing knowledge of missteps or recklessness.

I see now the hardest roles are often the least among us.
I give them their credit due.

And now, when I realize that I have nothing figured out
except the grayness of maybes, I choose my fights carefully.

And I count the small and fabulous enlightenments around me,
as I walk, easing into tomorrow.

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