“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”–Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
How-To Help The World Be a Better Place
Leave a stream of contribution in your wake.
Don’t just take, take, take.
Lay down a lasting-legacy in your lifetime,
Make sure your ladder is against the right wall as you climb.
Serve others, do good.
Don’t care about what the selfish people say you should.
Contribute to the goodness still left on this Earth.
This is why you were given birth.
Others will heal from your stardust.
Helping the world is a true must.
However you can, wherever you can – find a person or place to serve.
Be brave, drum up the courage, and the nerve.
Dedicate the whole of your life or even just part of your day.
Be kind, no matter what the hateful say.
Graciously, receive thanks and appreciation for your precious time.
A helping hand or even a smile given to another doesn’t cost you a dime.
by Sonya Zappone RYT, (Author & Poet) (Draft 4/11/2025) Alternate Title: One Smile at a Time
Suggested Self-Reflection Questions:
- How and where can you help today? (even for 5 minutes)
- Who needs a hand? (Or who can you ask to see if they need help)
- Who can you bless with a smile? (Where can you stand for 20 minutes and open the door for others?)
- Who can you send a heartfelt “thank you” to?
- Advanced question: Where can you make a difference?
How-To Thrive Through Uncertainty
(a poem for future generations)
There is thriving and… there is merely surviving.
How do we thrive through great modern-day uncertainty?
When the powers that be don’t seem to care about you or me?
Our forefathers and great-great-grandmothers built this nation.
They laid the plans for thriving on a firm, freedom-based foundation.
We must learn from our history—and carefully step slowly in the mystery.
Because time and time again, humanity has failed humanity.
When we speed through decisions, we compound our problems exponentially.
Our greatest hope lies in taking our time, giving great thought and our unity.
Here, we host a multicultural-mixing—a blend of the best educated brains.
We came from all over the world, to grow, to learn, to gain and to train.
But, in just a few years the landscape has changed,
Things have gotten very rearranged.
Our natural evolution shifted from a revolution
To a social media quick-fix solution.
How do we stay sane in crazy times?
When every few sections we hear the beeps, the buzzers, the alarms and chimes?
Have we installed a morning meditation?
Do we even make time to pray about our situation?
Have we been observing the natural laws of nature?
Or even thought about our ultimate creator?
Have we rushed through life with our to-do list?
And missed what was most important to our existence?
We need connection to ourselves and others.
We don’t walk this life alone, we have many, many sisters and brothers.
As the old saying says, each man, (and every wo-man) must be guided by their own inner light.
It means before, during, and after each fight.
It was a mini-awakening:
the day my child told me…
“You do you,
And I will do me,
Then we can live together in harmony as a ‘we.’”
Children are the future and we need to leave them with something – from all we have survived.
They need to be given a chance to live on a clean Earth and to thrive.
The way we navigate uncertainty today,
Is part of the story of their un-decided destiny.
– – Sonya Zappone, RYT (Draft/New 2025)
Suggested Self-Reflection Questions: (Self-awareness is key.)
-In what area of your life are you thriving?
-What are you currently surviving?
“When we can connect to our heart, we can live from our heart.”
Sonya Zappone, RYT is a self-published author, an EDS Sur-Thriver, a 500-hr Kriplau-Trained Yoga Teacher, meditation instructor, and poet living in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. She shares her mindful poetry at local yoga & movement classes to: inspire others and help them reach the mind, body, spirit & soul connection.
“Poetry has the ability to uplift, restore, and reconnect us to our True Self and soul.”
“Writing poetry is how I found my authentic voice. The voice of my soul. Find your authentic voice, find the voice of truth inside you and you will have found your soul.” – SZ