You don’t have to fail,
though all your efforts
up till now, were subject,
more or less,
to the sands of doubt
which would start slipping
out and out, from what you thought
was your foundation

You don’t have to fail
though you’ve been taught
that winning is illusive,
that others may achieve it
but not you,
or that winning has to be
at someone else’s loss;
this is not true

Though you have thought
success must be a thin veneer
beneath which you’d be haunted
by the same old fear,
there is a quiet power in the peace of here:
the triumph of your being can shine clear

You don’t have to fail.
There is no failure in the web of life,
the skies, the stars —
The same is true
in the unfolding of what you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 3, 2014