Category: Personal Reflections

Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection

Fearfulness

Carl Setzer

Distant echoes play
Emotions raised from my past
Words obscured by time.

Today’s Haiku Challenge: Long

Carl Setzer

Critical to climb
Ascend to the greatest heights
Thus see the long view

My response to “Today’s @baffled #HaikuChallenge: any haiku you like, as long as it has the word ‘long’ in it….” on Twitter.

Soul’s Creation

Carl Setzer

Journeys create souls
Deepening our deepest depths
First step: send ourselves.

Meditation: Mastery

Carl Setzer

Impatience destroys quality;
Feeds the tyrrany of the “NOW”,
Raging inferno of immediate perfection.
Devaluing mastery’s glorious gifts.

Quality bears manifold delights
Ones lost upon our gone-in-a-blink minds.
We’ve lost something powerful,
Traded for empty consumer shells.

The sculptor’s calloused hands
Have no short-cut. Each nick,
Wear, rub of creation, crafting
Builds knowledge, deepest skills.

Mastery: quality can’t be bought
It must be earned with each step,
Journeying: critical. Motions,
Thousands, in summation: gestalt.

Childhood’s Collapse

Carl Setzer

Daily decay’s
Raging presence
Death’s fragrance
Fills me deeply.

Then that morning’s
Ragged breathing,
Brutal truth of
Impending silence.

What are you doing with your life? Or, Glory Days

Carl Setzer

Earlier this week, I heard the classic Springsteen tune, “Glory Days”. This song always makes me think. It just seems so very sad. People stuck in the past, viewing their youthful achievements as the hallmarks of their lives. I can’t imagine a more miserable existence.

This song has always driven me to keep growing, developing, to always make this year my best year ever. And look to an even better future. Never, ever, do I want to be sitting lamenting the “old days”, when life was good. I choose to look forward, to keep doing new and challenging things. To grow! Choices are powerful. Come join me.