{"id":43330,"date":"2024-06-01T16:42:59","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T20:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=43330"},"modified":"2024-06-01T16:44:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T20:44:41","slug":"wasted-worry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2024\/06\/poetry-in-motion\/wasted-worry\/","title":{"rendered":"Wasted Worry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This month\u2019s poem is simply about appreciating the present moment \u2013 the \u201chere and now\u201d so to speak.  Sometimes, I tend to dwell a little too much on the past, which is something I cannot change.  And other times, I find myself fretting about the future, which is something I cannot predict.  We\u2019ve all heard anecdotal stories about someone who doesn\u2019t learn from the past and finds themselves doomed to repeat it.  Or folks who run full speed ahead toward a future goal, only to find that the horizon ahead of them didn\u2019t turn out to be the destination they had hoped for.  Conversely, sometimes, we hang on to the good memories we have and don\u2019t allow ourselves to appreciate the present times, until they too become a fond and distant memory, or we fear what the future may hold, based on our own narrow perspective from where we currently stand.  Then, when we move forward, we may find that the horizon wasn\u2019t as scary as it appeared to be.  Ever heard the stories of a man crawling across a desert floor, dying of thirst, that sees a vast lake on the horizon?  He pushes ahead to find that it was only a mirage \u2013 his perception of reality was not in line with what truly lay ahead.  Maybe you\u2019ve been truckin\u2019 along worrying about the dark clouds ahead, and you\u2019ve been missing the beauty in the moments around you.  The point is… we can\u2019t change the past, we can only learn from it, and hold on to the good memories.  We also can\u2019t predict the future, so we shouldn\u2019t fret about it.  We should absorb the moments we are in now.  I encourage you to read in the Bible, the book of Luke, Chapter 12, starting with verse 22, and see what Jesus said about worry.  In verse 25, He says, \u201cAnd which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifespan?\u201d  Nobody can.  The past is a treasure, the future is an unpredictable mirage, and the present is a priceless gift.  Maybe that\u2019s why it\u2019s called \u201cthe present\u201d \u2013 hmmmm?!  Enjoy this one called The Mirage.<\/p>

THE MIRAGE<\/strong>
By Trevor Hardwick<\/strong><\/p>

A man sees a lake in the desert,
He\u2019s thirsty so he presses on.
It looks like the answer to all of his needs,
But soon it\u2019s just up and it\u2019s gone.<\/p>

A minute ago he was certain,
The course he was on was the best.
How quickly things change, and plans rearrange,
When your future is put to the test.<\/p>

I look through a bug-splattered windshield,
The wipers just smear and they squeak.
I\u2019m thinking \u2018bout times that I\u2019ve left behind,
And the time I have left in the week.<\/p>

I wonder where consequence comes from,
It comes from decisions I\u2019ve made.
And perhaps from decisions of somebody else,
But in time every consequence fades.<\/p>

There\u2019s time that I\u2019ve put in the mirror,
And time that I\u2019m currently in.
But the notion that time is still waiting ahead,
Is a concept that\u2019s wearing me thin.<\/p>

The road and the clock start to own me,
As I try to chase both of them down.
They taunt me to play but they just run away,
And convince me to cover more ground.<\/p>

Where I\u2019ve been is just somewhere behind me,
Where I\u2019m going is still out of reach.
Where I\u2019m at is known as the here and the now,
Where we try to learn something to teach.<\/p>

From here I can see where I came from,
Cause hindsight is clear as a bell.
But what lies ahead holds no guarantees,
And I can\u2019t see the future as well.<\/p>

So, I try to remain in the moment,
Cause it\u2019s all that I know that I\u2019ve got.
But I\u2019ll press on ahead cause that\u2019s how I\u2019m bred,
And I\u2019m further behind than I thought.<\/p>

I occupy space in the present,
I learn from mistakes in the past.
I can\u2019t claim to predict the future,
Cause everything\u2019s changing so fast.<\/p>

A man sees a lake in the desert,
He reaches for something to drink.
It\u2019s all in his head because what lies ahead,
Ain\u2019t always what everyone thinks.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s poem is simply about appreciating the present moment \u2013 the \u201chere and now\u201d so to speak.  Sometimes, I tend to dwell a little too much on the past, which is something I cannot change.  And other times, I find myself fretting about the future, which is something I cannot predict.  We\u2019ve all heard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-poetry-in-motion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43333,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43330\/revisions\/43333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}