My worth cannot be measured in money

…“pay” me attention

“Rights” are on loan,
and “Freedom” is the collateral.
“Sacrifice” is the payments,
and “Tyranny” the lien holder.
“Apathy” and “Inactivity” are merely the repo men
("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke)

…perhaps you should “pay” (more) attention
To the sacrifices made every day for -your- freedoms

One day you may not be willing, or able,
To pay the price of inattention…

"Paying" attention is the most expensive thing that you could -ever- do...

------------------

Paying attention is so expensive and expressive because you have a finite amount of "time" and, once given, you can -never- get it back...

(I have a -very- hard time understanding how someone can claim to love another, yet to not have time for that same person.
The point is not if you -have- time, but if you will -make- time!)
Make time for what (and -who-) you love. While you still can...

Don't -give- up;
-get- up!
(Proverbs 24:16a)

Everything in life is a choice,
Even -Especially- unhappiness.
and failure

...

choose carefully

Take me, the box, for instance. In instants
Not stereotyped or predicted to doom
Look beyond the label for a minute. Look in it.
My seal of freshness keeps you from the truth
Were you to break the labels you might be surprised
You might even see, if you would open your eyes
I am -much- more than my packaging. Besides,
I can’t fit my story on paper…

Take me, the man, for instance. What is this?
You quantify the limitless with limited views?
What would you do were I, for instance,
To tell you, write to you, and show you the truth?
I’ve been preserved, in the public eye,
As a menace long before there was an “I”
As self-evident truths seek foreclosure
My shelf-life is limited by exposure
To the very enclosure in which they seek to confide
The body of a man whose mind soars free
I am beautifully black. I have nothing to hide
“I will fear no man…” but they fear -me-.

They keep expecting -my- box to fix -their- description
When the “writing on the wall” would be a better inscription
What they expect of me and what they want are two different beasts
So the world -and- my family hold the edge of their seats
They perceive in me a threat…
All of this and I haven’t even opened my mouth, yet
The -inside- of me is -outside- the box
But -inside- the box is the -outside- of me
Some times I’m so confused…
Which one do they mean when they say be “true to me”?

“Thick of lips with wooly locks, skin a richly dark complexion
Temper colored as the skin, most likely married to a weapon”
All this, and more, am I labeled; falsely, sure!
Not that the truth it lacks, but in me, box, there’s more...

-So- much more.

I have asked God for "peace that passes all understanding"
I fill my quiet moments with trying to understand it
I am endlessly thoughtful

Besides: "good" is a state of mind.
and, as "of the mind",
mine is in a State ruled by me.
So, if i am -not- doing "good",
then, perhaps, it is my -definition- that is faulty.
Or, perhaps, I should not be the one
who is ruling my mind...

I have remembered how to relinquish control to Him.
He has never let me down.
And, sometimes, it is easier to follow
then it is to lead...

Yes, I am doing "good". How are you??

(And, yes. For all you grammarians out there, I know that "good" should be "well". I just don't care. "Good" works better for my purposes)

The "heat of the moment"
Can leave scars for a lifetime

..."oh, be careful little tongue what you say..."

---------------------------------------------

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof" (Prov 18:21)

(Apparently) Her promises carry an expiration date...
...
so does my patience