Motivational Poem: A Bag Of Tools

A Motivational Poem
A Bag of Tools
Poet: R. L. Sharpe

Isn't it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make,
Ere life is flown
A stumbling block
Or a stepping-stone.


This poem comes to mind after I visited with a former neighbor today. I had not seen her for about ten years, maybe a few more.

How our lives have unfolded since we last had been neighbors. We had a very interesting conversation. I noticed that we each have our "bag of tools." I came away appreciating my own trials and experiences. It is an eye opener when knowing what others go through their losses of close family and their relationships in family are strained, how I would rather have what I have in my own life. I would chose to keep my own "tools," and use them as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks like the poem states.




Those tools are part of our lives, and are the things that we learn from each day through all the experiences we have had in the past. It is a refinement at best when those trials bring us the lessons of life that we were sent here to learn.

I opt to have the smaller bag of tools if those are indeed my trials. Wouldn't you?