Thursday, April 16, 2009

There Is a Hole in My Sidewalk: Autobiography in Five Short Chapters By Portia Nelson

Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.I am lost…I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep whole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.I still fall in…it’s a habit…but,
My eyes are openI know where I amIt is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five
I walk down another street.
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Does that remind us of ourselves? So often we take the long way to learn to walk around a hole (a problem in our lives) rather than recognize a hole straight away, acknowledge there is a hole, and have the right navigation tools to walk around it the first time round.