In His gift to us,
He’s Risen, follow God’s path,
Your sins forgiven.
Life is an echo,
What messages you send out,
Will come back to you.
I am proud of me,
When I look in the mirror,
I have given as much as took.
All I want to do,
Travel unknown lands to me,
Finding inner peace.
When I cried for help,
You always stopped and listened,
To my painful words.
God's guidance and light,
Faith and prayer will persevere,
Through your whole life time.
Let's be positive,
Dispose negativity,
Rinse, lather repeat.
I like to live life,
Impromptu but with routines,
Yet, no surprises.
I filled life's journey,
With people who walked with me,
Through all my seasons.
Learn from your mistakes,
Opportunities to grow,
Making you better.
Always put you first,
Stop losing yourself trying,
To please everyone.
Life's highest honor,
Caring for our own loved ones,
Like they cared for us.
Don't hold your thoughts in,
Stop by for a cup of tea,
Share what's on your mind.
When I hear your voice,
Telling stories of your life,
Your past comes alive.
I'm American,
Opportunities given,
That’s my proud privilege.
One speaker, one speech,
Two people in the same room,
Heard two distinct thoughts.
It's life's paths you take,
That you will do it again,
To set your soul free.
Sharing my today,
Hearing your stories with your voice,
Our everyday chats.
Homeless, poverty,
High costs, low wages, jobless,
A sign of the times.
Scrolling through my feed,
Brought friends far away, closer,
Pushed close ones, away.
Yesterday has past,
Tomorrow is not here yet,
Today is what counts.
Control what you can,
Find alternatives when you can't,
Delete all that's left. 
I may not have wealth,
With my priceless memories,
I am rich in life.
Little did I know,
Growing up took forever,
Yet, I got old quick.
I learned, I studied,
I know you remember me,
The lost, quiet one.
Don't drink the Kool-Aid,
Take time to do your homework,
Make your own mind up.
Today, I am OK,
There will be days when I'm not,
But that too, is OK.
What time is it now?
Hoping the clock moved hours,
Not just mere minutes.
You can't start each day,
As an all new beginning,
You weren't just born. 
To win life's races,
Just remain slow and steady,
Performing your best.
In case it's your last,
Make the most of your today,
Don't waste any day.
ABOUT ME, THE BLOGGER
Robert W Kovacs is a graduate with an Associate of Arts in Elementary Education from Broward (Community) College and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Public Administration and a Master of Science in Parks and Recreation Administration from Florida International University.
He recently retired after just over 40 years of service and his final position was the Payroll Administrator. He continues to astonish himself as mathematics just didn’t add up to anything exciting in his grade point average throughout both high school and college years. As long as he can remember his writing has always been a part of defining him.
The blog shares the form, syllable count and format of a traditional haiku but with a twist of themes being on life's observations and lessons learned as opposed to traditional haiku being based on a nature theme.
The author uses quick whips of daily events, humor and "a-ha" moments to capture his haiku.
Like his YMEJOURNEY blog, his writing brings you into his world as it offers him a catharsis, meandering through experiences of significant episodes of reflections of this ride on earth, that we call life.
Robert prides himself being an even-keel, grounded, educated and professional who appreciates simple pleasures in a complicated world. He enjoys more things than he doesn’t and welcomes being introduced to new adventures. In his spare time he enjoys traveling on vacations to see more of this world, a diverse genre of movies and TV, reading mostly biographies and fiction, listening to almost all genres of 80s music, board games/Wii, beach/pool, bicycling, parks, cooking and eating, relaxing and thought provoking conversations with quality time with genuine people. Presently, his primary coordinates are approximately 26.0523° N, 80.1439° W, on Spaceship Earth.
WHY HAIKU?
2024 Daily Challenge - Haiku!
I belong to a writing club and our facilitator (friend) gave us a challenge to take on 01.01.24.
I was challenged by this friend to use one style of writing and post every day a learned lesson of life or a positive affirmation every day of 2024. The writing style must remain the same for the duration of the challenge. All free form writing that is anything but narratives (poems, limericks, sonnets, etc) less than 1000 words must post daily while narratives exceeding 2500 words once a week. Anything in between at least 3 times a week. You must keep all grammatical, syntax, rhyming and syllable counts but can vary on themes and content.
I wimped out on the second part of the challenge as I picked Haiku as my writing style as it was simple.
A haiku is a Japanese poem of three lines consisting of 5, 7 and 5 syllables respectively. Typically, covering images of nature but I’ll take my spin on it for this challenge.
I like to write about my life’s observations, lessons learned and self affirmations as I try to find my way through a complicated world.
Eventually, they’ll make it to my blog but for now here’s my attempt at a haiku a day for 365 days enjoy my Nuts, Bolts and Everything Else.
Enjoy!
AUTHOR'S DISCLOSURE
An artist's purpose is to evoke emotion and/or dialogue of the masterpiece created, without either, it's no longer art, let alone a masterpiece.
This blog represents the author's original writing and makes no apology for posts resulting in experiencing a sense of discomfort when reading his own personal reflections, thoughts, affirmations, observations and opinions of his journey in finding his way through a complicated world, of his so called life. The author requests readers remain mindful of dates when a post was written. Many of the earlier posts were academic assignments with guidelines to uphold the integrity and standards of a specific writing style. One or a combination of formatting, rhyming schemes, syllable counts, themes and specific guidelines which were up to self-interpretation and self-discovery.
This set the tone for the author's tone and unique writing style. He requests readers remain open-minded to viewpoints differing from their own. The author strongly believes "we can disagree and still remain friends" and welcomes respectful dialogue and questioning of his writings. However; hateful disagreement our outright dismissal or suggesting the author's writings are inherently wrong will not be tolerated and may not be conducive to constructive conversation.
PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
Photographs for YMeJourney are generally used from the blogger's personal photograph collection, downloaded from Unsplash.com or maybe created via AI tools.
Blogger's personal photograph collection are photos taken from author or photographs provided to him by family and/or friends.
Photographs taken from the Unsplash.com website state, the following in their terms of use: Unsplash grants irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use images from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash.
The remainder of photographs or animated renderings are created by various AI apps and/or websites freely availalble on the internet with images created by them are free to use.
