Liam Barr

Someone serves you something sharp.
It stings more than it should.

And there's a good return ready.
Quick and a bit sharper than theirs.

But one serve is just one serve.
Nothing else happens until someone hits it back.

Return it and the next one comes faster.
Now you're both playing the game.

Letting them score might feel like losing.
Hitting back proves them right.

Getting what we wished for feels good.
For a while.

Then it wears off.
It becomes normal.
And we're already wanting the next thing.

The wish was never fully ours anyway.
It needed timing. Luck. Someone else's yes.

Wisdom doesn't need any of that.
Neither does good character.
Or kindness.

Those are ours to practise.
Nobody has to grant them.

And they last longer than any wish.

Every breath we take holds atoms that once made up our ancestors.
And when we die we flow back into the same earth.
It's been shared all along.

Everything is like that.
One thing follows another and moves the rest along.

Yet we forget it so easily.
We walk past strangers like they're nothing to do with us.
We hold back from family and sometimes even friends.

We're already woven together.
We just tend to forget.