Parents

[noonemoctod]

Our Parents can't save us from ourselves...
We are who we are and it doesn't matter how we got to be this way...

We have free will and can make our decisions and choices in our lives...
There are many who were given more than we were...
There are more who were given less...

There are those who had a better start in life...
But their number pales in comparison to those who had no start...

Maybe its easier if you don't know your parents...
Because you can fantasize about what might have been...
Instead of being constantly disappointed and put down...
At least that's what it seems like sometimes...

But we know in our heart of hearts that our parents
Did what they could, what they knew how to do...
And so should we blame their parents too?
I suppose but where does it end?
It doesn't...

Unless we decide to end it...

We can decide today, right now, this very minute...
Because that is really all we have...
Yesterday is gone and Tomorrow never comes...
We have now...

Our lives are just a series of nows strung together...
One right after another...
And we need to decide whether we are going to...
Continue to lament the past...
And to curse it for where it has brought us...
And to pray that some day... when things get better...
We'll be happier, thinner, richer, nicer...
Some other 'er, if only...

Or

We can decide right now to change the path we're on...
We can be better...
Now...

An oak tree is predestined to become an oak tree
And it has all of the potential it ever needs...
Packed in the little acorn that falls to the ground...
The acorn is dependent on luck...
It must be lucky to land on fertile ground...
And not be gathered by a squirrel...
It must be lucky to have enough water and sunlight...
For it to grow...
A weed is similarly destined to only..
ever become a weed...

We are neither oaks nor weeds...
We are not predestined to either state...
Though we have the potential to be either...
Or both at different times...
Under different circumstances...

We can decide what we will be...
It is up to us to become what we will...
And it always has been...

Although it is easy to look back and...
Blame the current of our lives...
For bringing us to this shore...
If we are honest, truly honest...
With ourselves, and aren't we the only ones who matter...
We know that we have navigated and directed our ships here...
Yes we weathered storms without a rudder...
And we were given bad directions and no map...
But we know too that there are those who had no ship...
And who have succeeded in life...
Those people had fewer advantages than we did...

And so...
Let's stand up...
Let's brush ourselves off...
Shake the dust of the past off of our shoes...
Take off the rose colored glasses...
As we look toward tomorrow...
And take stock of where we are...
And decide to go somewhere else...
Plot a course and take step toward our goals today...

Let's vow to do the same tomorrow...
And to never ever, ever...
Break that vow...

If we do that, each of us...

Our children will read this one day...

And it won't make a bit of sense...