Hit It With Your Best Shot

Before the sun lights the sky behind the ridge of mountain to the east, before the wave of another week breaks over you, you imagine what might be. You might remember what it was you came here to do. You might get your work organized, might find the will and energy to complete the tasks waiting for you as you do them with the quality that comes from love. You might sidestep the nattering nos and move gracefully though the roiling waters, the sharp rocks that snag your progress, cut and bruise your flesh. You might see in your students the potential and latent passion to be what they dream of being. You might leave that black coat of despair at home in the closet. You might choose to live the pain and joy of what is instead of clawing your way through the day to the relief of sleep. You might pierce the fog that covers your future and see there one more day to walk with the beloved, to delight in the soft light of her. You might shed the dead weight of fear and put your pen to work laying down the story that has led you here. You might find peace at the end of the day knowing that you said yes, that you didn't back down, that you followed the call to enter the fire. As the sun breaks over that serrated horizon you try to remember, to fasten this vision of what might be to this breath and the next and on and on into the gauntlet that waits for you.