Instructions for Greatness

Everything you do,
do it to the utmost.
Do it to the very reaches of your ability--
do it covered in cuts and bruises,
gasping for breath,
muscles screaming for release as you forge ahead.

Do it as you would a battle with a mortal enemy--
do it leaving every obstacle bleeding on the ground from a hundred places,
beaten into a quivering Jell-O salad from the force of your effort.

Do it with sweat pouring from your brow,
heart pounding in your ears,
all neurons firing full blast as you race across the finish line,
screaming "Yes! I have done it! I have done it--

Or it is not worth doing.

--Patti

From This Little Island

Here we are, babe. The big city.
22.7 square miles, and it's all gonna be ours. 
Cause we'll rule this island someday, you and me. 


We're gonna start like all the other dreamers do
from this little two-bedroom apartment four flights above a falafel stand and a Currency Exchange
and we're gonna dream and dream 
until this roof over our heads fills up like a hot air balloon and we can fly


And we'll see everything from there, baby, you and me
Higher than the Empire State Building
And everything we'll see will be ours--
we bought it all fair and square, paid in dreams and a little elbow grease
and from our throne over this little island we're gonna rule the world


And someday we'll have kids, see
and we're gonna teach em to fly just like we learned
we're gonna teach them everything we know and everything we don't and everything in between
and then when they're ready--


We're gonna push em out onto that great big island
with those eighteen million other dreamers out there screaming for space
and set em up in a little two-bedroom apartment four flights above a falafel stand and a Currency Exchange
and we're gonna see them rule their own worlds from this little island--
just you wait and see.