Prose Poem

Flying

A Bird falls from a branch and takes flight. The tarmac is hot from the Jets taking off. They soar through the air until a voice over the come screams "FIRE FOR EFFECT".

A man in uniform and gear on the ground watches the Jets scream by. His man on the radio screams to them. They watch as the bombs are released and float towards the ground.

They plummet all the way down into the unexpecting ground. The explosions shoot flames into the air. The Bird comes back to the nest with a worm. The Jets hit the tarmac. The Bird has just killed.

The war has begun.

Religion: Judiasm and a Decision

Throughout the earlier years of my life, religion was just something being taught to me because it was what my parents wanted. I had no idea what everything meant and that i was learning about something alot larger than the little hebrew letters and songs in my practice book. But I was young then, mentally and physically. I was at hebrew school becaus thats where my parents dropped me off on sunday. I treated it like regular school at the time, learn only what i need to please the teachers and never actually apply it to my life. I was there merely because it is what my parents prefered, I could car less at the time.

Thinking back on those days, sitting in a tiny class learning and memorizing those letters and words I now see that it was just the start of me joining something alot larger than "Hebrew School". I may have been taught alot in hebrew school, but the majority of my learning came after I had my Bar mitzvah and was done with hebrew school.

As I grew older I started to recognize what I had actually been pushed into against my will, not that I don't love the religion, and I would definitely choose it if I had the choice at birth. I had entered into a religion, a minority of people (especially when I moved out to WA) and something that I have learned to treat as a guide for my life (most of the time). 

Being young and being taught a religion, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of religion in the first place. Forcing all of that information into a child and expecting them to understand is absurb. I may have been taught alot about the information of that religion when I was younger, but my learning didnt occur until later on in life, when I was finally given the tools to find things out on my own and was trusted to do things on my own. 

I then found more technical things about Judiasm that I agreed and disagreed with which i respected much more than I had ever had earlier on. Applying my life to that information was the easiest way to learn exactly what I needed to know to prosper in life and I was given the choice to follow them or not. 

I had not always been given these choices. My Mother is jewish and my Father is catholic. The kids in my family were "jewish" but also celebrated the catholic religion. We never really took part in the Catholic religion because we were focused on judiasm, not by choice though. As I got older I started reading into the different religions and weighing out what I agreed and disagreed with. I finally came to the conclusion one year that regardless of what religions i could be apart of I was going to be only Jewish. I told my mom of my decision that year when she was wrapping Hannukah/xmas presents. I told her to not wrap any of mine in xmas wrapping paper, I wanted all of mine on hannukah.

Right there I had made the first major decision in my life. No other decision meant nearly as much as this. My parents new it to. They didn't question and I see why they didnt now. I can look back on it now and realize that I may have been born jewish, but the decision was always there for me to make. I didnt have to be jewish, But I agree with it more now in my life after i have been able to look at all religions.

"Life is not about how many breaths you take, But the moments that take your breath away."

Life has been made out to be about the present, Nothing else. Whether or not you are happy in that moment and none other. I think the problem with people today is that they worry to much about whether or not they are always the happiest they can ever be. They worry to the point that it ruins the moments that they are truley happy and the moments that are unforgettable, or atleast supposed to be. Not even just happy though, They manage to ruin the moments that are actually supposed to mean something, whether those moments are happy or sad. Those moments that are supposed to mean something are so over shadowed by the effort that is being put into every moment people experiece. 

What I have learned so far in my life is to never try to be happy. Just let everything happen as it is. Whatever happens, happens. Theres nothing I can do about it and if there is, then it is something to learn off of. Life is never supposed to be a contest of being happier than you were the day before. Life is simply about "the moments that take your breath away" regardless of good or bad.

Those moments are what mold and define you as a human being. For me those moments are skiing/snowboarding, My car accident, And when I learned what Love meant.

No matter what is going on in my life or what hardships i may be going through, I can always count on skiing/snowboarding. While on the mountain I am at peace with everything. I am able yo clear my mind and just be me. I find myself surrounded in tranquility while on the mountain. I would never clasify myself as a mountain junkie, I mean I went once last year and probably wont at all this year. But Just being there manages to make me almost forget about everything. I cut myself off from everything except for whomever I am with. The rest of the world doesn't matter, just what I am doing currenty.

My car accident was one of the biggest turning points in my life. I was on a ride with a friend that took all of 15 minutes. We were on our way back to his house when the accident occured. He was driving his car over the speed limit, which we both trusted because we drove this road the same way atleast one thousand times. We went to make the turn, hit a gravel driveway he lost control of the car and we hit a rock retaining wall at 75 mph on my side of the car. Only one airbag went off and the car ended up 250 down the road, missing 2 tires and was destroyed. I was told by the fire cheif on the scene that I shouldnt be walking if it were not for the airbag that went off. The only airbag in the car, the one by the "oh shit handle" or in regular terminology the passenger window. If that did not go off my head would be sticking out the broken window and based on the mark/dents down the passenger side, he said, my head would have most likely hit the rocks along with the car. 

I don't think I slept for days after that moment, and even still it bothers me. But it has helped me live my life the way I am now. Taking everything in stride and not letting anything get to me. Things happen for a reason and you just have to be ready for what will come in the future. 

Other than my breath physically being taken out of me, Love has mentally taken my breath. I have had girlfriends in the past, none of which I told that I loved them, simply on the fact(s) that I did not know what it meant and because I didn't know how to find out what it meant. My last girlfriend was the one to show me that. I had known her for all of 3 months when I asked her out finally. After that night it hit me like a freight train rolling at 100 mph (or like the car accident). She was it, she was unlike anyone else, unexplainable. Everything about her in every way, shape and form. There was no words that could describe what I felt for her then and still do. So right then and the days, months, years proceeding I learned what LOVE meant. We are no longer together, but even still he has managed to change the way I think and the way I feel towards others. 

These experiences are those life defining moments that do truly take your breathe away physically and mentally. These are the moments that get completely overshadowed by the people taking as many breathes as they can and attempting make every breath that much more memorable than the last. These are the moments that will last forever and shift the ways of life as it is lived day by day.