Are Your Life Guideposts Lying To You?

— body language by Weddie Thiên  —​

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Oh, look at those guideposts you follow each day,
Your duty, being loyal, marking your way!
Hard work and persistence, no pain or no gain,
The gritting of teeth as you swallow the strain!
Be strong! And be fearless! Be good! And be kind!
Be giving, improving, be last in the line!
And measure your worth by the nods you receive,
And do all the shoulds you were told to believe.

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But happy is how you arrived on this earth,
Not earned, not deserved, it was there at your birth!
The shoulds and should nots were those lies later sold,
Let go of those guideposts and watch your life unfold!
 

As long as you steer by those signs in the clouds,
You never will suspect what is under the shroud.
The truth that sits waiting, unhidden, unbarred:
That happy is easy, the guideposts make it hard.
No prize to be won and no ladder to climb,
No hoops and no hurdles, no bill and no dime.
It isn't a trophy you finally win,

It's already there in the skin you came in.

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The shoulds and the should nots are dressed up as “good,”
They tell you to do what a fine person would.
But look at the bills that they endlessly write:
Your ease and your joy go, every day, every night.
They sell you a virtue, they hand you a chain,
And give you a medal, and say you have gained.
You carry that weight and you swear that you must,

And so did the ones who first gave it, in trust.

Not one of them tricked you, not one of them lied,

They handed the guideposts they carried inside.

​

But happy is how you arrived on this earth,
Not earned, not deserved, it was there at your birth!
The shoulds and should nots were those lies later sold,
Let go of those guideposts and watch your life unfold!

​

For life can be easy, and life can be play,
With wonder and awe waking up every day,
With curiosity leading you off down the street,
And connections that shimmer with each one you meet,
And doing gets done without struggle or strain,
Never grinding it out in the wind and the rain.

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And here is the twist that will set you at ease:
You needn't feel brave, you can shake in your knees!
You needn't be strong, you can tremble and quake,
For fear is a feeling, and not a mistake.
You're powerless? Yes! And you're tender? You are!
And that is no wound, and that is no scar.
Say yes to the risk, say yes to the fall,
The maybe, the might, the not knowing at all.
 

Now, belonging? Connection? They're never in play,
They're not up for grabs at the end of the day.
Consider the one who just knows she is smart:
She blunders! She fumbles! She flubs the whole part!
And somebody hollers, "What a dope! What a fool!"
And she only grows curious, calm as a pool.
The words never landed, they found nothing there,
No wound to be poked at, no nerve to lay bare.
So too with the knowing that you are a part
Of every last human alive, heart to heart.
Whatever they do, and whatever you feel,
However they treat you, that knowing is real.
You never were voted, you never were let in,
You came here belonging, right there in your skin.

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Then out of the world where the praise and the blame
Keep handing out points in a rigged toxic game,
You walk, and you're free, with no verdict to fear,
No gavel, no jury, no judge in your ear.
And the judge you dismiss, the most brutal of all,
Is the judge in your head who has run the whole hall.

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So pull up the guideposts wherever they stand,
Each one that was planted by somebody's hand.

Pull up the first one, and you'll feel it come through,

A little more happy, a little more you.

Then pull up another, and more of it flows,

It grows as you loosen, and loosens as it grows.

You needn't be finished, you needn't be done,

Your happiness grows as you do one-by-one.

​

But happy is how you arrived on this earth,
Not earned, not deserved, it was there at your birth!
The shoulds and should nots were those lies later sold,
Let go of those guideposts and watch your life unfold!