It is a long a rocky road
This passage known as life.
With twists and turns, humps and holes
And seemingly no end to strife.
It's ironic that we travel all
At exactly the same speed
Three hundred and sixty five days each year we make
Equal, we are indeed.
Why is it then that some achieve
Far more from life than others?
You see it when you compare two lives
Say, two sisters or two brothers.
Is it all the luck of the draw,
The fabled hand of fate?
Or is it within each of us
What life for us we make?
While travelling at the same speed,
Could it be that one is sleeping?
The other in the drivers' seat
Sees it all and does the reaping.
The world is filled with envy
The have and the have-nots.
Too easy it can be to conclude
That you design your your own lot.
For accidents do happen
Catastrophes along life's way.
They can happen to the best of us
Then our attitudes will sway.
We'll appreciate the big picture,
Complete in all four dimensions.
We'll perceive that although we steer our own boat,
The weather is not our invention.
Some people stay asleep
And never leave the port.
They may avoid life's crises,
But their achievements will be nought.
Others hoist their sails
Only to be trapped within a storm.
Some then start again at the beginning,
Other stay inside where it is safe and warm.
Who do you think reaps most from life?
Those who try again or those who quit?
And is it fair to be judgmental
When too many storms have made some sick?
For inside every one of us
Comes the potential to succeed
Yet no matter how we handle life,
Success is never guaranteed.
There are potholes in our road of life,
And treacherous seas with storms
Unpredictable events
That can permanently change our form.
Few people reach the end of the life's road
Untouched and in one piece.
That's why eventually the road must end,
Eventually, we all need release.
Until then, we must all travel together
We must love each other more.
The strong must lift up the weak,
The rich lift up the poor.
We're all travelling the same road,
We need not, of this, be nervous,
For everyone is a neighbour to us
We are their Coast Guard, or road service.
© 2005 Friend For Life
9 flowers for this post
nothing is certain. life is an experience. life can be continuous struggle. one moment you are happy, the next month you become sad. one moment you flourish, suddenly everything fades away. it goes up and it comes down. and if you see this cycle, you see cycle of life. if you enjoy life, you are learning to live.
Patrick | Homepage | 20.06.05 - 4:46 pm | #
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And if we have not yet reap what we have sown, we are also only learning to live. It's a long maze of zig-zags, some with dark winding corners, some with blocked passages. Some with shiny smooth paths, some with rusty old pipes. Life, IS complicating.
Primrose | Homepage | 20.06.05 - 11:37 pm | #
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we are the mechanics of our own life. i have moved to the new lab. alot of freedom cause my professor is always not in the new lab :P and i am moving to new student studio apartment. will show pics next time in my blog. if you are unhappy, you can choose to stay put or to move away. life IS complicating but life is choice.
Patrick | Homepage | 21.06.05 - 10:53 am | #
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and i want to mention that primrose - you are very special person. talented, smart and beautiful woman. and friend for life .... hhhmmm ... mystery man ? hope to know both of you better .... just wanna say thanks.
Patrick | Homepage | 21.06.05 - 10:55 am | #
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Oh so sweet lah you, Patrick. *blush* Live life as it is, remember??
Primrose | Homepage | 21.06.05 - 12:36 pm | #
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Thank you for your comments, Patrick and PrincEss.
PrincEss, you have me wishing I'd included zig zags in the poem, along with the pot holes!
Patrick, I respect you but must disagree with you on one point: "if you are unhappy, you can choose to stay put or to move away. life IS complicating but life is choice."
This is not always so. In fact, for many people, it is rarely so. You cannot chose your parents. You cannot chose the suburb or country where you were born. You cannot choose your gender (well....), you cannot choose to just walk away when you are pinned under a 40 tonne semi trailer with all of your ribs broken. You cannot always just move away when you are unhappy - particularly when you have responsibilities towards others.
There are so many people people in this world desperately wishing they had different circumstances - but just "making a choice" doesn't cut it. How does an eight year old AIDS victim with no parents living in a barren African desert "choose" a better life?
So much of the developed world has, over the past century, been indoctrinated by the philosophies of the human potential movement, with its "positive thinking" teachings.
In the end, such teachings are selfish. They blame victims for their own circumstances. They take credit for their own success. They take a Darwinistic, survival-of-the-fittest, amoral view of life.
The most important choice any of us can REALLY make in life is to help those in the world, even in your own neighbourhood, whose circumstances prevent them from helping themselves.
Life is far less about choice, and far more about responsibility, than such self-centred "positive thinking" philosophies espouse.
Patrick, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not accusing you of being self-centred. I'm just pointing out an error that, unchecked, could lead you down that empty road.
Friend For Life | 21.06.05 - 1:48 pm | #
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i do agree with you. it is debatable but generally, i still like to think life is choice.
Patrick | Homepage | 21.06.05 - 3:22 pm | #
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wei going for PPS or not wei? =)
cyber-red | Homepage | 22.06.05 - 2:19 pm | #
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Cyber-red, are you inviting me along to join you at the PPS? That's nice of you.
Friend For Life | 22.06.05 - 3:44 pm | #
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