what pulls the best from us?

motivation?   

what pulls the best from us?
is it outside or inside?

how do we keep going when the way gets hard?
how do we start going when the way forward looks too hard?

what pulls us from lethargy into
one step forward,
then another,
despite the siren calls around us
that call out to us
“it’s too hard,”
“it’s boring,”
“it’s too much”?

competition might wake us up,
a gradation along a scale,
a sense that we are better than the other,
a zero sum in which our “plus” needs another’s “minus,”
and often it’s not even a zero sum,
for the plus is one,
and the minuses can be many,

a better competition might be to contest ourselves
against what rings false at our heart,
to match our effort against the lethargy that calls to us,
to match our truth against how the universe unfolds before us,
to let the best in us create
and marvel ourselves with what has become
because we make the effort to call it forth,

we crave to be our best,
and we will get there if the power within us finds how to cascade forth, true,
true to itself, and to what makes the world a better place.

by Henry H. Walker
August 17, ’12