Thomas Sanders
Recipe for Me
There are shouters, and murmurers
Loan sharks and burglars
Who's good or bad? Who's to say?
Some are lost, some are searchers
Some are givers, some are earners
But why did they all end up that way?
Is it nature at play, or is it nurture?
Is the teacher to blame, or is the learner?
I'm all at sea
I'm no authority on anything but me

I couldn't tell you why I am who I've become
But I can tell you the parts that make me up, and you can calculate the sum
I'll impart to you what I believe would be the recipe for me

Water
First things first, you'd need a great deal of water to make me
Sixty liters is roughly what you need
It accounts for sixty-five percent of my being
And cells
My body's composed of trillions and trillions of cells
Performing an assortment of missions, and it's important to mention that they house my DNA
Which makes me myself

There's an ebb and a flow
I grow, then I see changes
There are rewrites, losses, gains, and rearrangements
It's all much more uncertain than I thought it would be
Who knew there'd be so many ways to be me?
Stories
Audience or presenter, add scores of stories over a time
A slew of silly videos I shared online
And journals full of narratives I wrote at age nine
And still, I continue to write because I have more dreams to fulfill
Tales I hoped to tell when I was younger
Ideas that I haven't made yet, but I will
I'll find my way with my will

There's an ebb and a flow
I grow, then I make changes
There are rewrites, losses, gains, and rearrangements
I'm so much more uncertain than I thought I would be
Who knew there'd be so many ways to be me?

Eggs
You may laugh, and that's great
Your smiles are what make my day
My self-worth's fragile like an egg
When it breaks it's tough to put together again
And salt
A pinch of salt in my wounds when my friends have had enough of me
It doesn't help that I'm lacking subtlety when I drop hints that I crave their company
Alone it's hard to console myself when I feel so alone
I feel like I disappear, if I don't shout "I'm here"
If I don't make my presence known
And if people see me here
And find my face unclear
Can I help them to see me better?
I know I can't foresee the weather
So will they accept me now or ever?
Who knows?
I hope so...
But I'm good enough
Whatever I face, I can rest assured that better days await
The path to happiness isn't a race
I'll let my heart beat at its own pace

Sunshine
Happy and bright, it nurtures the earth with its light
Its beaming smile helps buds to flower
I'll take a dash of that for when friends feel sour
And rainbows
A light shines through and every hue is on display
Save a pinch of that for a rainy day
And use it when the storm clouds go away

There's an ebb and a flow
I grow, so I make changes
There are rewrites, losses, gains, and rearrangements
I'm so much more uncertain than I thought I would be
But I can see there's no wrong way to be me
Now I see there's no wrong way to be me

And I know putting this recipe to paper is unwise
All of the ingredients are changing all the time
I know putting this recipe to paper is unwise
All of the ingredients are changing all the time
Changing all the time
They're changing all the time
Changing all the time
I'm changing all the time