1. The Past Is Not a Prison

The past is a tale the mind still repeats,
A shadow that follows but bows to new feats.
What happened has weight, yet no sovereign claim,
For meaning, not memory, authors the frame.

2. All Suffering Is Relational

All suffering rises where mirrors are placed,
Where selves are compared, ranked, measured, and chased.
No ache lives alone, no wound stands apart,
Each pain is a distance from heart to heart.

3. The Courage to Be Disliked

Freedom arrives without trumpet or cheer,
It enters when praise is no longer held dear.
To walk unapproved, yet inwardly sound,
Is to stand on a truth not borrowed from ground.

4. The Separation of Tasks

Let tasks fall away to the hands they belong,
Where blame grows exhausted and peace grows strong.
One life bears its choosing, another its view,
What others make of it is never for you.

5. Beyond Comparison

Comparison bends every mirror to lie,
One climbs only when another must die.
But worth is not taller when others are small,
No crown can be raised from a needless fall.

6. Contribution Over Recognition

Happiness waits not at triumph’s bright gate,
Nor bows to success or the favor of fate.
It grows in contribution, humble and still,
In offering presence, not bending one’s will.

7. Happiness Is a Choice

Joy is not stolen, demanded, or won,
It blooms when the courage to live has begun.
Chosen in daylight, in failure, in fear,
It asks no permission to quietly appear.

8. Courage as a Way of Being

The bravest of lives is gentle and true,
Not loud in its claims nor eager for view.
Rooted in self, yet turned toward the whole,
A life lived in courage becomes a shared soul.