- How Do We Spend Our Lives -

John Herlihy

The question emerges how we spend our lives,

We build around us a cocoon, like butterflies.

Like butterflies, we struggle out of our cocoon,

We do sing our song with the tempo of a loon.

Like butterflies, we each adopt our own color,

A filter to see things that may finally smother.

Like butterflies, we do eventually emerge free,

But the question remains, what do we really see.

We can spend our lives with discipline and hope,

By following routines as we cling to life’s rope.

Routines that offer a sense of enriching fulfillment,

The doing and having done that brings contentment.

How many times have we simply wasted the hours,

The minutes and days pass we never claim as ours.

Why not choose to fill our lives with serious intent,

To take the benefit that all our efforts have lent.

We spend our entire lives living out destiny,

A destiny that is truly ours, our living mystery.

Whether rich or poor, a big family or quite alone,

We only have the one life we have ever known.

No one escapes suffering, it is part of the cost,

Life offers challenges as chilling as winter frost.

Our ledger scripted with effort we leave behind,

A life that is well lived becomes one of a kind.

We can spend our entire lives living in fear,

Something holds us back, dark shadows near.

Uncertainty about the way forward holds us back,

Timidity a form of shyness as if laid on the rack.

Indecisiveness keeps us guessing about what to do,

Poor judgement erases any wisdom we ever knew.

Our hopes and dreams torn as our worries prevail,

The way we have taken goes down some lost trail.

We spend our entire lives living an illusion,

Even if that illusion causes a lot of confusion.

Some people live as if they will live forever,

Some people think this way: they die never.

What of the lie related to the physical world,

There as the only world, as an oyster pearled.

Some people think that they can do no wrong,

Everyone will listen when they sing their song.

How we spend our lives remains an open question,

How we choose to live our most heart-felt expression.

True that we must accommodate to a fixed destiny,

True the future contains fears found in life’s mystery.

True that we make decisions based on a false illusion,

True that the uncertainty offers us limitless confusion.

But all the lies, fears, uncertainties cannot hold life back,

The truth of what we do, who we are, will keep us on track.

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(c) John Herlihy January 2019