Life Guard

Sometimes
we think we have someone else’s life figured out
we assume if they would just do this
or if they would stop doing that
then their life would be just fine
but in reality
we can’t even figure out our own life
if we adhered to the golden rule
maybe we can begin to repair each other
instead of constantly tearing each other apart
and begin to resolve our own personal issues
and stop judging someone else
gossiping about someone else
berating someone else
and hating someone else
because when we do those things
we are really judging ourselves
gossiping about ourselves
berating ourselves
and hating on ourselves
remember
we judge each other for what we judge ourselves for
when we reach out to an SOS
are we doing it for the person who is drowning
or do we subconsciously perceive it as a way to remedy our own inadequacies
if we brag about our heroic feats
and our courageous deeds to everyone
then we already have the answer
before we can begin to be someone else’s life guard
we must first pull ourselves out of the transparent pool of being self serving
eradicate “I”
from being our favorite word of the alphabet
stop riding on the waves of applause
that can often come crashing down
leaving us without a life preserver
we must first begin to be our own life guard


By Veniece Wesson

copyright 2010