Inner Chant...

 Initiative needs no audience, in fact, it needs nothing but itself.

Distraction is a contemptuous sea where indulgence has no shortage of swimmers.

Which of the two will occupy and determine the course of life?

To be aware of both is half the game. To stay put the tentacles of inaction

Is often not a goal for the mind built of entitlement, built of sloth, built of the weak.

I see no strength in weakness. I do not associate the necessity of such to get ahead.

To be weak is to give up. To be weak is to complain. To be weak is to accept defeat.

Defeated people eat gobs of their misery, they cannot get enough of it.

They will offer it up, of this - they will love to share. To be heard is to be loved.

To be listened to- is care. To listen without prejudice and hear without helpful advising

Is equally weak. 

Love and care contain constructive aids that are to be distributed as needed.

"Who am I, Darlin, to ya? Who am I...?" - BH

What constitutes these thoughts? That comprise who I am into the toughness that I understand?

By which design and whose measure did I come to be this way? The spirit dictates?

The Soul? Are they one in the same? Are they separate? Do they deliberate?

These facets of being, they have been with me, built into me- existed from the start.

I think far back and can still conjure early feelings and the notion of 'why?'

Young in California, yet able to remember the purposeful finagling of internal fear.

Seeds planted to a core that was unsure. To take the 'why' and analyze it, quietly.

Keeping love and care at the center of all focus, regardless of how confused I became.

The years have laid upon themselves in succession in such a way that I can look back now

Proud of the avenues traveled and able to rationalize the 'how and why'. 

The grip of the grist and the trimming of juicy fat have been taught to know their place.

To be given due is the best and perhaps only way to get past 'uncomfortable'

Heated beings that spend time listening to their core become better managers of their life.

I hear the noise and recognize the chaos of everythingtryingtodistractandimpugnme

And I leave it where it is- outside the perimeter of my vulnerability. 

After nearly 49 years of existence, I am a strong, capable, caring, intelligent and honest fighter.

Life IS strategy. There are hurdles that arise both naturally and planted.

If I lack the wherewithal to fight, how will I get to the other side to love and care for anyone?

Least of all - myself?

The skin is thick, the sensitivities are protected, the lessons learned are respected.

I suit up each day, in varying degrees of priority, ready to tackle the now and the future.

I want this life. I want it all. I will earn the inner and outer bruising that comes with territory.

If we don't understand the balance, we are only half alive.