standstill

feeling tired to move
uninspired.
looking back once more
and feeling discontent...
its inevitable.
for a while now,
searching for greatness
but realizing that everything
had been nothing but echoes.
words once called my own
are just others' voices
that led them to immortality.
sharing the limelight.
emptiness...
...slowly consuming.
...all that had ever been.
...all that there might ever be.
holding on to faith
to reason
to hope
that soon this will have meaning
to seek identity
in starting to walk once more
to make a path of my own
and finding
me.

fuel

"There is no stimulus like that which comes from the consciousness of knowing that others believe in us."
-Orsen Marden

Quote

After awhile you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn that love doesn't mean possession
and company doesn't mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises and you begin to accept
your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of an adult not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build your roads today
because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans
and futures have ways of falling down in mid-flight.
After awhile you learn that even sunshine
burns if you get too much so you plant your
own garden and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
that you really are strong
and you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn...

-Veronica A. Shoffstall

just remember

It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again;
who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
DARING GREATLY
so that his place shall never be
with those timid souls
who know neither victory or defeat.

-Theodore Roosevelt