Leap the Abyss

James Broughton wrote a wonderful, short poem, which I first noticed seven years ago and some small part of my mind has been thinking about since. It appears at the end of this post.

Not that I can actually take every position it recommends, but it reminds me of a favorite thought from Mark Twain, who said that twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you did not do than by the ones you did.

Regret is the one emotion I have tried my best to avoid. And this poem clearly attempts to offer ways to help a person not get too acquainted with regret—at least the regret of not trying what you wanted to try.

Take some time to remember whatever was once important to you but became buried by time and life experience. And once you uncover it, look at the advice in the poem to see how much of it you can undertake.

Choose not to upholster the rut you’re in; choose to leap the abyss to what’s more beautiful, what gives you life, what’s next.

 

Take the whole kit
with the caboodle
Experience life
don’t deplore it
Shake hands with time
don’t kill it
Open a lookout
Dance on a brink
Run with your wildfire
You are closer to glory
leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut
~ James Broughton ~