...

Tonight I am beside myself.

I am dazed by the way life hands us its gifts,
Wrapped in trials and decorated with bouts of indecision
Cascading like shiny ribbons.

We do the best we can to carve our own paths,
To seek out our own happiness,
And yet we are reluctantly reminded
That the bonds we've so carefully forged
Become our biggest obstacles in moving forward.

And we are constantly caught looking in our rear-view mirrors,
Swearing that we're just checking to ensure
That nothing has fallen from our trunks
When really we know that reflections can hold more than regret.

So who is it all for?

Is it for the ones who cannot leave the comfort of their own skin
In the tiniest hope of finding something new?

Is it for the ones who you wish you could take with you
Despite the ironic need of complete severance?

Is it for the ones who have left you behind,
Breathing dust and cursing their tail-lights?

Is it for the ones you love,
More than you ever thought you could love someone,
Who seem to make all of this chaos worth it?

Or is it only for yourself that you change?

We are told that we only live once.
That we can't take it with us.
That someday, it'll all make sense.

But I, for one, cannot wait for reason to find me.

I've been stagnant now for a bit,
And instead of finding myself and my sense,
I seem to have lost it all.

And you don't see too many people selling inspiration
On street corners these days.

So what if we take matters into our own hands?
Isn't that what makes us men and women instead of monkeys?

The choice is, and always has been, ours.
The choice to find happiness.
The choice to find reason.
The choice to find ourselves.

And so I am left to my own devices,
Resorting to philosophy and poor attempts at self-help
Whose motivations waver when re-read in daylight,
Trying to write what I wish I knew how to really say out loud.

It's always that way with us artists...

The Things We Need...

We need to make mistakes.

We need to fail.

We need to trip and fall, and get up only to trip and fall again.

We need to face the things that have beaten us.

We need to make mistakes.

We need to revisit the choices we have made.

We need to admit our faults.

We need to feel that agony of defeat.

We need to travel down roads that lead us nowhere.

We need to stop and think about what we are really doing.

We need to make mistakes.

We need to be humbled.

We need to wonder what the hell we're all doing here.

We need to convince ourselves that we've got it all wrong.

We need to try, try, and try again.

We need to know that we are alone in the most purest of natures.

We need to make mistakes.


We need all of this if only to realize that our choices make us who we are.