Good Weaving

Swim in the oceans, the lakes and the rivers

Hike the far places and enjoy different cities

Cook your own meals together in the kitchen you remodeled yourself

Write down whatever true lines might come from inside

Take time to be alone, considering the quiet darkness

Be comfortable outside and get a little dirty

Decorate your own place with a slow and loving care

Patch that leaky roof all by yourself

Create a fine soup from that good chicken carcass

Rehabilitate that broken but comfortable lawn chair

Notice as the moon waxes and wanes

And be aware as your life seasons come and go

Bake your own bread and break it with your family

Change your oil and top off all those fluids yourself

Sell your house without a grasping, useless, so-called professional

Read for yourself and cast aside all the sound bites

Buy good things used and proudly donate items in their time

Don’t let the angry young man become the bitter old fool

Make someone smile using your own imagination

Plan a trip all by yourself to a place you’ve never been

Pick up your own instrument and play from your heart

Mix up some concrete and put it to good use

Tile the halls and refinish the wood floors

Buy the tools that you need to make these things work

Hook it up and wire it in

Mend the clothes should they get torn

Cut your own hair to suit your own taste

Sing the songs that make you feel right

Leave enough room for a few more wild dreams

Give the local birds a happy home beside you

Grow tomatoes or a whole garden

Don’t replace it if it ain’t really busted

Take some time to just stand in great wonder

Tend to the house plants and you will bloom together

Paddle the river, board the mountain, hike the trail, bike the pass

Distrust all noisy, gasoline-powered recreational forms

Start your own trends and ignore the media concoctions

Keep the faith though the struggle is both endless and futile

Build it to be stronger than it will ever have to be

Make it to last longer than it could ever be good for

Put it together so it can be taken apart and repaired

Have enough parts around to get all these things done

Realize that to love is your highest aspiration

Listen to the voices that brought you from the past

Leave all your campsites cleaner than you found them

Strive for a society where women blossom like flowers

Try not to shout without thinking or slam things to the ground

Take good note of scientific, mathematical and philosophical infinity

Study enough to be able to start seeing all the questions that appear

Take pride in your work or find something else to do

Try to weave your scattered experiences into your own rational tapestry

Laugh with the masters as they clap with one hand

Marvel at the blossoms that appear in the spring

Just keep on working, quite absorbed, until death overtakes you

Live happily with the dogs, our own true partners and friends

Simply teach your children to do for themselves

Analyze but do not swallow those mass-market opinions

Be skeptical of slick but empty corporate entertainment

Verify wisdom with your own eyes, ears and mind

Try and save something, each and every day

Know your computers inside and out

Tap into the Web to give and to get

Understand yourself better than you do those fools on TV

Take time to be overwhelmed by life’s baffling mysteries

Tend to the things which have always supported you

Fall in love as deeply as you possibly can

Make sure your read widely and above third grade level

Be able to do the math and understand the physics and statistics

Know about planets, stars and distant galaxies

Learn the past of humans, of the earth and the cosmos

Be able to heed wisdom when you should stumble across it

But do not allow others to do your thinking for you

Live within your means and plan for the future

Search out those things that you do very well

Maintain your body as well as your mind

Learn to differentiate between empty fads and true values

Train for good work and continue sharpening your skills

Do not grow bored for the sake of a paycheck

Speak at least one other language and know your own very well

Travel widely and quietly, learning from others far away

Build up a small framework of reason and understanding

Have faith, but avoid dogma and organized religion

Understand the world around you better than the plots of soap operas

Always follow the money to understand politics and business

Listen to the rain as it falls gently on the roof late in the evening

Pause and strain to understand the quiet bursting of the Springtime

Laugh loudly and often, especially at yourself

Cry when you have to and somehow grow from the sorrow

Hold someone tightly and listen to their heartbeat

Look deeply into the mystery that comes before and after

Keep your study well-organized to prepare for twisted and isolated facts

Maintain a thumb on the bullshit buzzer but fill your heart with ideals

Simply share the earth with all of its beings

Build a sustainable bridge that links to a real past

Try to find new ways to make things better while using up a little less

Enjoy cutting waste to help supply your friends in the future

Do some of the things that I could only imagine

Don’t make all of these same mistakes that I have already made

Realize that your life is vanishingly short

Try to love all these good things at once, with everything you have