a hammer and a nail

There will be days that you reminisce your blunders;

moments when you cringe at the thought of how you failed.

The people in your life have a notion of who you are.

Simply let your actions be the hammer and the nail.

Some days you can bask in the praise given by your peers.

You need not live up to their image of you, overcome it,

nor attempt to cleanse it with your tears.

These moments of triumph and defeat will cycle as if your will abides.

Balance their value in the totality of your life;

Your future, your present, and past besides.

Our past can never be relived, taken back, or labeled but what it is.

The decisions we make in the present can be made with wisdom gained;

Our future is something we can prepare for;

the present is where our action lives.

How others label and define us will change as the shape of a cloud.

The only constant we can have is the consistence of inconsistence.

Know you will make poor decisions and some that make others proud.

Embrace the fact that you will make mistakes and fail.

And when others cry out in defeat, crumble and fall?

Hold fast to the knowledge you are prepared for that moment,

stand resolute, shoulders back and tall.

When others vandalize your image with their words

and point their fingers at you as they stare?

Let not the failures all men make

subtract from your value when you are beaten and bare.

It is traveling this path that enhances your ability to endure pain.

Your perseverance in learning that brings growth and wisdom,

when all we have built and strived for is slain.

The warrior stands victorious, though bloody, bruised, and battered.

Our intestinal fortitude keeps our eyes on the horizon

and our head held high though our dreams may be shattered.

You can allow your past to shape and define you, as so many do;

or you can grab up your hammer in one hand, in the other a nail.

Build something stronger, build yourself into someone truly you.

-David Ream Hollenbach, III