Валентин Фондаратов

Staring at the empty page before me All the years of wreckage running through my head Patterns of my life I thought adorned me Revealing hurtful shame and deep lament Overwhelming sorrow now absorbs me As the pen begins to trace my darkest past Signs throughout my life that should have warned me Of all the wrongs I've done for which I must repent I once thought it better to regret Things that I have done than haven't Sometimes you've got to be wrong And learn the hard way And sometimes you've got to be strong When you think it's too late Staring at the finished page before me All the damage now so clear and evident Thinking about the dreaded task in store for me A pit of fear at the thought of my amends Hoping that this step will help restore me To face my past and ask for forgiveness Cleaning up my dirty side of this unswept street Could this be the beginning of the end? I once thought it better to regret Things that I have done than haven't Sometimes you've got to be wrong And learn the hard way And just when you're through hanging on You're saved If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. "You're only as sick as your secrets, but the truth shall set you free..." "The truth is the truth and the only thing you can do is to live with it."