Month / August 2023

by tracycpoetry

Obsessing Over Outcomes

As I sat outside this morning watching birds and preparing myself mentally for the week ahead, I thought I bit about the weeks behind. I thought most about how I spent my time. My burnt up life minutes tend not to be from what I do, but from what I do after I do. 🤷‍♀️ Let me explain….

I’ll work hard at work for a great referral that doesn’t end up working out. But instead of a quickly assessing and learning what I can do better the next time around, I might spend hours mentally beating myself up and negatively impacting the things I’m doing now.

And posting online on my days off is not the problem. I’m a creative, a writer, and a blogger. It’s a great outlet. The problem comes when after I submit the post, I go back again and again looking for likes and other positive feedbacks or spinning downward because it’s not doing as well as I has hoped.

My goal for this day, this week, this moment is to do, create, be and then release. Once it’s out there, I’ll only hurt myself if I sit and obsess and don’t let that outcome go.

And, as they often do…. My thoughts turned into a little poem….

When I take an honest look 
At the time I spend
And the time I waste
It's not so much doing a thing
That takes my time away
It's when I do a thing
But then don't release
And keep obsessing over the outcome
Like checking for likes again and again
Or beating myself up over
The account I didn't win
That is the danger zone
Where my future could fade
Into my own obsessions
by tracycpoetry

Peace (a poem by Tracy C.)

I don’t think
There’s such a thing as peace
In these days of
So many  promises
Of instant satisfaction 
That only bring dis- ease
 
But even still
This peace I seek
Getting up at 5
Gazing at stars
As I await sunrise
Is it a glimpse of God I seek
Or more elusive yet
A glimpse of me
 
The me that I’m
Not even sure I can define
Because too long I’ve drawn
My own reflection
With someone else’s lines
At what point did I trade
Thrive for survive
 
Perhaps this frustration
With the way I’m living
Is what will help me
Finally
Come alive

(click video below for a spoken word version of this poem)
by tracycpoetry

Lessons from Hummingbirds

I love to watch hummingbirds flit to flowers and feeders and back. I’ve noticed when they land on an empty feeder or another object such as a branch or a wire where there is no nectar, they spend very little time there.

These lovely little creatures must always pursue more sweet nectar in order to sustain their high metabolism and very active lifestyle of almost constant flight. Without new sources of sweetness, they would simply die.

I hope we can learn from them and never stop pursuing the sweetest moments and memories that give our very souls life.

I’ll end with a little #Haiku for you:

like a hummingbird
as we pursue sweetness we
find ourselves sustained