There are some mountains in front of me today

A slammed, jammed-pack schedule

Looking at it nearly takes my breath away

Strangely, taking it on feels futile

I imagine paper stacks

A million interactions with strangers

The dread is enough to trigger panic attacks

Thinking about it last night, I couldn’t sleep

My boss would say there’s money to be made

As if any of it we could ever keep

It’s ignominious but I want to be like a sheep

Under the Shepherd’s direction

I’ve been looking around and it’s clear that “self-help” is deflection

I try to outrun my jitters

Maybe I can come alive among nature and the wild critters

Rock climbing makes me feel like the hyraxes

But when I come down I’m surrounded again by death and taxes

There’s always a wolf on my heels

A mountain of paperwork

I’m a gerbil on a wheel

I’m not sure how to get off

Is death the only way it stops?

If only I could see my schedule as some sort of gift

Maybe a change in my perspective would give my spirit a lift

The track is endless

I can’t run it friendless

And mountains are still beautiful – to be climbed

To be covered in sheep

Rocks are there when the going gets steep

What if I just slowed on down?

Saw my inbox as a relaxing pool rather than a place to drown?

Surely life is more than a pursuit of a paycheck

It’d be a shame to go through it a nervous wreck

So tonight I’ll mosey on out to the green pasture: my backyard

Look up at the stars

Among the critters

And ask the Lord, my helper, for something bigger

The right perspective

Some sort of prescription for peace

I’m gonna make every effort to seek Him out like a lost sheep