September 07-B, 2022

We all trust ourselves 
to know when to stop pouring.

No one has to tell us that.

If we can trust ourselves 
to know when to stop pouring,
we can trust ourselves to know
all we need to know
to know what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
and to know what does not need to be done.

The question then becomes,
"Do we have what it takes 
to do what we know needs to be done,
and to not do what does not need to be done?"

Can we bear the pain?

Bearing the right kind of pain--
that would be the legitimate pain
of being alive
and doing what needs to be done
in response to--
in responsibility for--
the experience of being alive.

Can we bear the pain of being fully alive?

Too many of us can't bear the pain
of making Daddy/Momma
(Or whomever the authority figure
we must please) unhappy with us
to live our own life in response to--
in responsibility for--
the experience of being alive.

When we live to make someone happy with us
(Even though they have been dead for 26 years),
we live the life we think they 
would have us live,
and forego any possibility
of living a life of our own.

We have to live so as to make our little heart sing
and our little toes dance--
in other words, to know when to stop pouring--
and bear the pain of our choices
in each situation as it arises.

We have to be tough enough to take it,
to take what living well requires,
in order to do what needs to be done
regardless of the consequences,
letting "the chips fall where they may,"
in an "Oh, well," kind of way.

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