Charlottesville, Virginia
April 27, 2020
If you have read my other blog posts, you have likely concluded that I am on a journey. It's a journey that I would have preferred to start a long time ago, but it is what it is. I am fortunate to have a wonderful family and great friends who thought I was OK, even when inside I thought I was not. That damn mental chatter that I believed.
I came across this "poem" this morning. I know I wrote it because while there is a rhyme in each stanza, the measure is way off - like in all my poems! I don't know when I wrote this, but I am sure it was within the past three years. I'm sharing it for grins (you can laugh at my inability to write a poem and my jumping between the first, second and third person) but also because .... well, I like it. It reveals something that I am proud of.
You gaze into your old mirror
And think you are not good enough
That others are just plain better
That you are just not up to snuff.
I have been there and I know
Your thinking is all too wrong
it is time to make a change
To dance to an upbeat song.
That bad negative voice in your head
Tis time for it to begone, to scram
Replace it with "Be Young, Be Foolish
Be Happy" by Joe Pope and the Tams.
Your mindset's in in the wrong place
Carol Dweck would say it is fixed
We must use a new growth mindset
then we begin our life remix.
Where to begin this change?
Well, it starts with your mind.
Remember each new day
To you always be kind.
Are you the smartest, prettiest,
The most talented of them all?
You are not. No one is. Sorry.
Now is time to tear down that wall!
Trust in yourself, my friend
You have So much to share
Once you start down this path
You'll be happy, I swear.
Follow your values
Let them lead the way.
You will be amazed
Every single day.
You will replace those negative thoughts
With feelings of happiness and joy
And then you'll be off to the races
You'll wake each morning and say "Oh, boy!"