the striver's dilemma

woe to the striver’s weariness,
yet woah to the striver’s progress.
to lament the fatiguing and endless hamster wheel,
yet to sing the summit’s song,
is to observe the relentless forward progress.

woe to the one,
who lost the pace,
who lost the pacer,
who missed the purpose.
joy to the one,
who matched the pace,
intimate with the pacer,
familiar with the pleasure of progress,
far more than the shame of scarcity.

striving while holding the sacred is a different song.
sacred’s invitation is not to stop,
but to a seeping and a spillover,
a stretching from an attached anchor point.

no movement means submitting no mountains,
traversing no valleys,
but without calibration, there won't be many.
there's a mode where growth exceeds breakdown,
the hard comes held,
the suffering sacred,
cup emptied for the joy of the filling,
more fresh than the first.

there's a time for push,
a time for pull.
there's a time for speed,
a time for stillness.
there's a time for participation,
a time for patience, and pause.
the mountain demands climbing and descending,
not stagnant, potently sacred.

movement as momentum from the light within,
not reaching for the ever elusive “more”.
the “more” is accessible now, deep and in,
not achieved only “there” or “then.”
internal grounding to face the external stimulus,
internal stillness to achieve external movement,
internal foundation to build the external structure,
internal light to collide with the external dim.

the pacer is in me,
i am in the pace.
the journey conversational, relational.
renegotiating the terrain, environment, season,
to establish the energy, fuel, resources required.
too fast, and the effort won’t last.
not outpacing the inputs,
for the greed of the outputs.
adjusting the systems for the summits.
slower now for further later.

the conversational pace is a right now invitation,
presence the goal of participation.
my pace today affects what’s possible tomorrow,
my proximity to the pacer the key controllable.
the potency is in the right now mile.

the present moment greets the seeker,
offers the lament to shift to a song,
the weighty be lifted to the light,
the hunger and thirst to be differently satisfied,
the lonely venture to be sweetly accompanied,
the mountains to be moved.

the cry of the endurer,
not to lament the depletion,
not to praise the accolades,
but to embrace a new conversation,
to envelop a new intimacy,
to entertain a new mantra,
the low and slow.

slower today is further tomorrow,
proximity to a presence,
awareness to a conversation,
trustworthy is the pacer.

thin spaces, thinly held,
desperation is the strength,
helplessness the advantage,
dependable the pacer,
trust is the pace.
relentless forward progress.