Transformational Poem

For my upcoming book release, Leaving the Darkness: A Proven and Practical Burnout Guide, a good friend and supporter wrote a poem to contribute to this work. He observed my burnout collapse, recovery and transformation into what you see today. He took those observations and wrote this poem that is featured in the upcoming book - releasing December 16, 2022. 

Grab your copy here on Amazon or on Website for supplemental workbook and online course. 

 Songs of Passage

I can remember

those unblemished possibilities

laid calm and unabashed

 under the warmth of a young sun.

I, the ready traveler

starved for unexpected roads

and the challenge that each bend presents.

: This was the song of the conqueror :

Wishes granted,

fluorescent jungles became my arena.

Skills unleashed, shoulders brawn and wits razored,

the race was now!

My orchestrated dance

scored by metrics and deadlines.

The stage embraced

as I was built for performance.

: This was the song of the bee :

Personal circles expanded

as promises were made with best intentions.

Hours consumed with the balance

of obligations and competing priorities.

Each decision measured by the level of fulfillment gifted

further cemented my stride

as no longer free.

Early scents of sour

as I marched a parade of deliverable transactions.

: This was the song of the provider :

Days ground like weeks…

when time felt like anything at all.

Striving for any gold

yet each win emanated only tones of gray.

I, adorned in drapes of a weariness unpermitted, so unseen.

Desperate for a hand

but finding theirs outstretched in need and want

served only to drag me down.

A practiced smile brandished as a sword of survival

while robotically stumbling forward? to an illegible compass within.

: This was the song of the sunken :

Down there is alone. Down there is numb.

Down there is illness. Down there are whispers.

Stories of doubt, resentment, disillusionment and betrayal

targeting every person and aspect of life

that drifted into the focus of scattered thought.

Then, in a moment of exhausted stillness

I was offered a simple counter:

Is this reality? Are you alone?

: This was the song of choice :

With a mindset scarred and vulnerable

but opened to examine within,

a meditation of personal accountability

pulled the veil of ego aside.

There beyond that self-inflicted ruse

 laid snares of my own design:

triggers unnamed;

adopted environments adverse to growth;

mental and physical warnings unheeded.

Steeled to admit my unwitting sabotage, amends were made.

: This was the song of the recovery :

The first steps are ingloriously small

but ripple through every fold of identity.

To uphold an internal promise

 that a return to darkness is not an option,

groundwork must be set:

a reassessment of what is essential to self

while cleansing that which is not required to maintain it;

concerted effort to embrace the duality of daily interactions

and siphon from them only what is positive;

connecting with resources, relationships and community constructs

conducive to personal nourishment

and that elicit a residual sense of

empowerment and self-worth;

accept that relapse and resilience

are interwoven elements of the human condition.

Slowly I work to become the mantra,

forever gathering tools and guides

to aide this continual journey to a better self.

: This is the song of hope and it is my song,

but it is not mine alone :