Success Builds On Success
You can't run away
from your problems
When your behaviour
Is your problem
fear of losing
someone you love
can have your anger
drive them away
How many times
Must you walk
down the road of anger
Before you realise
your anger
Is your problem
How many times
Must you watch
Your child is taking drugs
Before you realise
Your drug problem
taught them,
Those drugs were fun
that smile when you got drugs
Taught your child
Those drugs were fun
You spend night after night
Yelling at your kids
and wonder
Why don't they listen
The man sitting on the couch
complaining about kids
"They're animals"
"Look at them throwing spaghetti"
The kid's behaviour
Would have been better
If he sat at the table
and supervised the kids
Like any behaviour
Kindness is taught
If a child kicks his ball
onto the roof
You can teach hatred
by telling him
He'll never get it back
Or teach him you care
by climbing onto the roof
and retrieving the ball
The way you speak
teaches children
How to speak
I sat in the background
listening to the children play
Gordon raised his voice
"You'll do as I say,
It's my way or the highway"
Words of his uncle
Repeated by the child
Psychologists want to blame
Either the child
or the parents
But to me
The problem is more complex
To me, it's more like percentages
Granted, the child makes decisions
With courage and confidence
They could study and become a doctor
But where does courage and confidence come from?
Is it nature or nurture
that makes a child's personality
Courage and confidence
builds on success
I remember my son
trying out for the cricket team
Hit the ball for a six
All of his peers gasped and said
"Look at that"
from there on
You could not stop him
playing cricket
his confidence
came from me
Taking him out to the park
Teaching him to catch a ball
Teaching him to hit a ball
Experience builds skills
Those trips to the park
taught him the skills to hit that six
Watching my father drunk and violent
taught me to have fear and self-doubt
Half the size of the adults
I felt like a failure
because I didn't
Stand up to stop their arguments
When you teach a child
to walk across a wooden beam
You teach them to build confidence
You teach them to have balance
You teach them to overcome their fear
When you teach a child
to respect you
by getting the ball off the roof
You teach your child to respect adults
confidence and respect build success
Teachers like children who respect them
Success builds on success
Copyright © Bernard Barclay | Year Posted 2020
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