For Real Toads: musical challenge, Patti Smith

Marian's musical challenge today at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads features a longtime multi-media artist and Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame member named Patti Smith: songwriter, singer, musician, poet, journalist, actor, author, activist, who is as young as springtime and as old as I am.
Patti won the National Book Award for her autobiography Just Kids, and our Marian is going to see and hear her, perhaps meet her, next week, but first she introduced Patti to the writers at Real Toads as an inspiration for our poetic imaginations.
I was so sure I'd be inspired by Patti's song Wing, because I love the phrase "a wing on heaven blue" but instead the second song Marian posted turned out to be the one to inspire me to write this little poem:

*

Wikipedia photo
Smith performing with the
Patti Smith Group, in Germany, 1978

almost every road

is just a road—

but the one

that’s paved in gold

is the one

paved with love

and friendship

paved with warmth

companionship

and laughter

paved with care

for others—

all those

who care

and share

and help

and heal

and walk

with us

are gold

WHAT DO YOU MEAN???

CHAPTER 4 – JUST ACCEPT IT?????

Perhaps you’ve never really accepted being less than completely fit. Maybe your mental image of yourself is from an earlier time, when you felt ten feet tall and bulletproof.

My self-image is of the day in my mid-30s when I walked to Peace Arch Park with my mother and my youngest brother, Rob. It was a beautiful day for a walk. It was also a beautiful day for a run, and I suddenly found myself shouting, “Race you to the arch, Robbie!” It felt wonderful, moving as fast as I could. In my mind’s eye, I still see an idealized mini-movie featuring soft green grass below me, blue sky above me, the Canada-US border in front of us, and Mom laughing behind us.

Alright, I know, my brother was only 13 at the time, and my legs were still longer than his. Okay, maybe Rob wasn’t trying very hard because he really didn’t think I could beat him. Nevertheless, I got there first.

Laughing and perspiring, I panted, “I won!”

“That was pretty good,” he said, with a grin.

Of course it never happened again. A year later, when Rob and I were traveling with a friend in Queensland, Australia, I tried to run, tripped over a tree root, fell flat on my face, and decided enough was enough. But I’ve carried the image of my one victory in my head for years, pushing aside the embarrassing memory of eating Australian dirt, ignoring the pain slowly overtaking me, and trying to ignore the years overtaking me as well.

So don’t think I titled this section “just accept it” because I’m good at acceptance. I’m not. I’m here to say don’t do what I did. Don’t do what I still do from time to time – don’t refuse to accept your limitations.

This may sound contrary to the moral “it’s better to go than not go” but it isn’t. Acceptance is key to enjoying adventurous travel. Accept your limitations by learning to deal with them effectively; accept being unable to do everything your traveling companions can do and, above all, accept help.

Accept help?

Become a little old lady escorted across streets by boy scouts? Oh no, your inner voice screams, I can’t, I won’t, and I never will, so there!

I know, I know. My inner voice screamed the same things, but there were times when I had to accept help from the most unlikely sources... for instance, from my mother.

Good grief.

I’d rather have had a boy scout help me.

Or a girl scout.

So how did I get from there to the Galapagos Islands?