How to Stop Feeling Like Your Life Isn't Good Enough

It's easy to let life devolve into a series of deadlines

Constantly rushing to the next milestone

Don't let it

Don't live your life by other people's timelines

Potential

Don't try to live up to your potential
Make your potential live up to your life

It Makes Me Mad

And on the surface, yes, of course, it makes me mad
That news of the last fatal protest hasn't even ended before reporting of the next one begins
The wars of the world seem to meld into just shifting conflicts over time
That we're probably just as generally culturally backwards here as any other country we call 'the third world'
And yet
You and I will never do anything real about it all

Dream Journal

Some dreams I have are so vivid
That months later I have trouble distinguishing them from actual memory
I'm scared that some day
I'll wake up and find out half my waking life was spent asleep

True Legend

You can only hope that when all is said and done, you end up becoming a memory someone remembers even once a year

He Was A Stand Up Guy

Love isn't finding someone that fits your tastes
It's finding someone that makes you want to adapt to theirs

Cloister

I keep peering out between the columns
Kids smile with all their teeth as they run past
Parents watch over neighbouring children as vigilantly as their own
The sky is a spotless blue, marked only by the kites flying so high up in it they seem like planes cruising overhead
I watch and wonder
If today is the day I finally step outside
If today is the day I stop being afraid of the sun

For River

I live with such regret
About all the big things, and most of the the little things
If I could do it all again, I would change every single thing
Would grow up in a different place and become a different person
I would change everything
Except for you

Permanence

As we rush to get things faster, cheaper, and to the entire world
Don't forget to keep the things you like most
So that you'll still have photos to look at and cds to listen to when you're old

The Lord is Out of Control

Late in the night I wonder
If it will all be worth it
If someday I will meet my maker
And we'll walk down some petal strewn path
And he'll say "My boy, I've been waiting a long time for you
I almost didn't think you were going to make it at some points!
I almost thought about going a little easier on you, but I knew you'd make it!
Riveting stuff, you were a delight to watch."
It makes it just a little easier to bear it all

It's Not Enemies Who Betray You

For all the barriers you build in your heart
For all the distance you put between you and everyone else
Inevitably, trust will be your undoing

Camp's Edge

I stood there, thirty feet from the camp fire, in the dark and praying I didn't get any pee on my feet. I felt, for the first time, everything and everyone I cared about was within reach, nearby. And the rest of the world, and my job, and my problems, and my life, just everything, was all miles and miles away from me. The past didn't matter here, and neither did the future. All there was, was now, the darkness, the starlight, and the laughter echoing between the trees.

Atmosphere

Sitting inside and relaxing is all well and good
On days that are rainy and gloomy
But every once in awhile you have to go outside
And remember that life isn't so bad when you get rained on

For Xuan

Time only can move along so fast
Sometimes we need to get up and run along beside it
And say 'catch up! I'm ready for the next thing already!'

Dragged in a Life Preserver

I'm coasting
I can't help but glide along
Letting life take hold and drag me forward
Caught in the slipstream on the easiest path through
Leaning back and wondering
How different it would be if I took control

Who am I

The edges of your self don't end at your skin and fingernails and hair

It stretches across the pavement riddled with the faded invisible prints of your feet

Over all the pages you have ever signed your name to

It echoes in faraway hallways from the mouths of friends and family

It ends in the hearts and minds those who truly love you

So little of yourself is yourself