Tears
Smiles
Diapers
Pacifier resolution
Running across the room
Going with my dad on the night patrol
Seeing the wheat harvest
Life only asks you one question.
Learning letters
Getting on a plane
Learning a new language
Finding the bathroom
Getting bullied
Going to camp
Singing in harmony
Seeing a rattlesnake
Missing home
Life only asks you one question.
Playing with legos
Watching TV
Falling asleep in the backs of cars
Brother
Sister
Clarinet
Birthday presents
Running around the block to vent my anger
Life only asks you one question.
Making my own bow and arrow
Miniature golf
Music practice
Girls
Rap
My best friend’s funeral
Grunge
Girls girls girls
Pressure
Loneliness
Depression
Life only asks you one question.
Moving back
Learning to read in high school
No one laughs at my jokes
More loneliness
Stress
Counseling
No one remembered my birthday
Life only asks you one question.
Rollercoaster ride
Dancing until the sun comes up
Making mistakes
Working with kids
Sleeping in bunks
Uniforms
Semi-automatic rifles
Watching the news
Narrowly missing two bombings
My commanding officer crying on the phone
Life only asks you one question.
Sitting on a jet plane
The smell of India
Waterfalls
Frozen lakes
Meditation
Elephants and huge white cows
Noise
Silence
The taste of true freedom
Life only asks you one question.
My family at the airport
College
Questions
Goals
More questions
Relationships
Sex
Music
Students
Musical Theater
Life only really asks you one question.
Taking chances
Another jet plane
The Golden Gate Bridge
Stocking shelves at a hardware store
Two kindergarteners fighting in the yard
Life only ever asks you one question.
Back to the “village”
Back to school
Teaching
Career
Flashbacks
Running away
Back to the Bridge
Life on a wooden sailboat
EMDR
Sunrise
Seagulls
Whales leaping out of the water
Men screaming at their wives in the middle of the night
Coming back to land
Making ends meet
Taking warm showers
Looking out the window at the rain
Singing with toddlers
Finding a place to live
Taking walks
Naming the trees
Seeing the creek fill with water for the first time in ages
Wondering where it’s all gonna go.
Through
Everything
You
Do, see, and experience,
Life
Ultimately
Asks
You
Only
One
Question:
What do you REALLY want?
Photo by Dominika Gregušová, Pexels.com