Getting  your  **** together  requires
a  level of honesty you can't imagine.

There's nothing easy about realizing
you're  the  one that's  been  holding
you  back  this  whole  time.

     YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE :
No  one is  going  to save  you. This
life of yours is 100% your responsibility.
No  matter  how  you  feel,  get  up,
dress up, show up, and never give up.

If  you're  searching  for  that  one
person that can change your life,
take a look in the mirror.

You don't always have to tell your
side of the story.

Time will.
                                                                                               Jon York  2023

"Today is the tomorrow you worried  about
yesterday."                               Dale  Carnegie

The  universe  is  built  in such  a  way  as  to
discourage  boredom.  Just open  your  eyes
and look around you and you will never  be
bored,  I promise,  because  in  these  strange
times things are  just moving and developing
so very fast.

It seems like just the other day that I returned
home (1970) from a 13 month tour of combat
duty with the  United States Marine Corps  in
Vietnam and I  just  blinked  my  eyes and  it is
2023 and I am the father of a son and a daughter,
a grandfather of 5 beautiful grandchildren and
a great grandfather of  4 little ones.

You may underestimate the intensity of your
longing for continual transformation, but the
universe doesn't, which is why it provides you
with entertainment for your ever-shifting story
called life.

And that is why it is always revising the challenges
it sends your way, to provide your curious soul
with  a  rich variety of  unpredictable  teachings.
                                   ­                                                          Jon York   2023

Every day is a poem.  Poetry  is  therapy, whether  you're
reading  it, writing  it, or  simply  evoking  it  in  thought
patterns and perspectives.

Pain,  both  physical  or  mental, is  part  of life.  It  is what
makes us  human;  it shapes us the same as  love. Through
poetry we touch the places that are too painful to linger in.

Be your own hero. Let your pain be a source of inspiration,
turn your heavy load into poetry, own  it, use  it, and take
as  much from it now as  it has taken  from you in the past.
Embrace pain and burn it as fuel for your journey.  You're
a dangerous person  if  you go  through  things  alone and
come back better.

In  our writing, we  can uncover the  how and  why of our
pain, looking deeper into the process of its becoming, and
then we begin to dismantle it.

Turn pain  into power,  sadness into strength,  words  into
wisdom.  Pain makes  you  stronger, heartache makes you
wiser. Let your pain become your power.
                                                                                              Jon York  2023

Be  prepared for the journey  of life and  where
it will take you.  I've seen better days,  but  I've
also seen worse.

I've  had to learn to  be strong when I felt  weak,
to be brave when I was sacred, because I needed
it to survive. I don't have everything I want, but
I do have all that I need.

I  woke up with some serious  aches and  pains,
but I woke up.

My  life  may not  be  perfect, but  I have  been
blessed with a son, a daughter, three beautiful
grand daughters, a grandson, and four great
grandchildren and a lot of love.

Be humble when you are victorious, and be
happy,  because  life is just  too  short  to  be
anything else.

You  miss  100% of the shots  you don't take.

Be  thankful  to be alive, knowing  that  every
minute  you are here  will never come  again.                                                               
  ­                                                                 ­                           Jon York  2023

The best way to  predict  the future
is  to  create it,  as you  are  listening
to the universe.

You are  a universe inside a universe.
Galaxies  are born  within you.  Don't
be limited by the perception of people
who barely understand the moon.

You become what you read.
You become what you listen to.
You become what you watch.
You become what you think.
Choose wisely.

The grass is greener where you
water it.

"Imaginary evil is always romantic
and varied; real evil is gloomy,
monotonous, barren, boring.  

Imaginary good is boring; real good
is always new, marvelous, and
intoxicating."
                                         Simone Weil
                                                            ­                                  Jon York  2023

So far I've survived 100%
of my worst days. There
is  no  failure, you either
win  or  you  learn.

They said I changed a lot.
I said a lot changed me.

No  rescue  will  come.  We
cannot  be saved  from  who
we are. Our past is engraved.

Life's biggest tragedy is that
we get old too soon and wise
too late.

Feelings are just visitors, let
them come and go.

"Strive not to be a success,
but rather to be of value."
                                          Albert Einstein

Only compare yourself to
your previous self, not
anyone else.                                                                        Jon York  2023

Dream and scheme about your long-range future.
Let your passions run wild, because there is nothing
you can't do if you want to do  it bad enough.

You will always have tomorrows, but when today
is gone, it will never happen again.

What will be story of your life in 2023?  Will you
find graceful ways to cooperate with the tides of
destiny and will you create the adventures that
will bring out the best in you?

Every  minute of every hour of  every day you are
making the world, just as you are making yourself,
so do it with kindness and style.

Say this:  "I will always adore, forgive, and believe
in myself."

"I  will never  forsake, betray,  or deceive myself."
                                                        ­                                      
You don't have to be anything you don't want to be.
You  don't have to feel emotions  that  others try
to manipulate you into feeling.
                                                        ­                                      Jon York  2023