Timely

The greatest gift I can give to you

Is the skill of temporal mindfulness

Knowing that all that was, that is, and that will ever be

Can be navigated through with a flexible mind and perception of time

And I know if you can survive a day you can survive a month

And if you can survive a month you can survive a year

And years are makers of lifetimes so in your lifetime

I hope that I can help you realize that learning to live and accept

is as simple as constructing a time-frame

Because if change is the master of life then time is the master of change

And you are the master of them both and can barter the price of life

To a negligible cost

Week 1

The first week is always the closest to tragedy

In the way that a newborn is closest to its mother

What is newly born will cling to what gave it life

And its self-preservation will try to overshadow yours

You will know its battle cry as the sharpening keenness

Of the feelings of blame and shame

Your hearing will be more sensitive when walking among insensitive social circles

Encircled around the barren carcass of a still smoldering rumor

"Is that the girl who--"

"Bless her heart--"

"Sometimes bad things happen to good people--"

This week will be the hardest because the past knows how

Hard to hit you in your regret to make you feel like

You are at fault for the uncontrollable

The remedy for this is knowing that the past

Is like shitty music

It will be irrelevant

Before you even know it

So dance to the tune of your own heartbeat

Cause it will be all you have to remind you

That this is your body and no one else’s

The past goes for easy targets the way that men

Who do not know the meaning of the word stop

Go for easy targets until they put up a fight

So dance your sword dance

Dance your sword dance

Week 2

The second week will consist of constantly guarding your back

When you should be protecting your front

Because when the present----- presents itself it will do so

With the apathetic force that turns the gears of every clock

Wake up, brush your teeth, shower, get dressed, go to class,

go to work, flash a smile at the appropriate times for both

People will demand that you rebuild your social life

When you are trying to remember how to rebuild yourself

After  a stubborn hurricane

The cloth you use to restitch your social fabric will be soaked and tattered

The wood you use to rebuild your home and hearth will be splintered and wet

A fire will not burn hear for a long time

But people will beg for the warmth of your smile

To console themselves

With the flimsy assurance

that you are just fine

Even when you are not

Cause even if you can put up a haphazard shack of socially acceptable behavior to

Cover up the foundation of fear that has gripped your home

The stones you set in place will be moist and damp

Because fear is a slippery slope

The remedy for this is to treat the present as a present

This time is yours to do what you want with it

Because other people are guests of the future

Water eaten thread will not tie you to them reliably

Water eaten wood will not make for an inviting hearth or home

Slippery foundations will scare them away before they even get to the front door

Week 3

The third week will be taunting the way the light at the end of the tunnel always is

The smell of fresh air will be welcome but you will still be too scared to breathe too deeply

Handle this week with moderation with the same moderation with which you anticipate the future

Because the future's greatest weapon is temptation and temptation's most vulnerable targets

Are the hasty impulses that galvanize your bones when you want something so badly

You will want to feel normal so badly

You will want this ugly cemented in your bones

To not live so close to your heart’s home

But know that this ugly is not a resident here

It is an intruder and it has no alibi

You are not a walking crime scene

You are evidence of a soul looking forward

No matter how hard life has tried to pull you backwards

It is tried and true that time heals all wounds if you let it

And as much blood and tears as you have had to let

 to get to this week

You deserve to feel pretty again

To feel real, to not feel used up

The remedy to a daunting future

Is trusting yourself

Start little

Trust yourself the way you trust a chair not to give way when you sit

Trust yourself the way the rope wrapped around your neck trusts the blade when the knife hits

Trust me when I tell you that on your darkest days if you ever get into a kicking match

With a bucket I will always hope for the bucket to win

This week will be the tipping point

Week 4

The last week is crucial

It is the forgetting week

It is the remembering week

Yesterday will feel so long ago

But not too long ago

Fingerprints will leave their mark around your neck

Or maybe that was just a memory

People will continue to ask

But it will be easier to talk about

At least it will feel easier to talk about

Particularly in the day

Nights will be mourning periods

Grief will be a visitor who always overstays his welcome

But he is not visiting you

He is visiting the misery you harbor

And she knows when she's not welcome

And so does her company

Keep yourself in the company of people who believe in ghosts

They know how to deal with the past

Keep yourself in the company of ambitious children

They know how to deal with the present

Keep yourself in the company of the hurting wise

They know that the future has already happened before

Survive on a diet of Chinese fortune cookies

The ones that are actually from China

Because when it comes down to it they were on to something

For example

The Chinese word for crisis is a combination of two characters that mean

Tragedy and Opportunity

Agents of time

Who is the master of change

And you are the master of them all