Poem A Day Challenge for April 1

I suppose I might have written an April Fool's Day poem. But alas, I didn't. This is the first day of the Poem A Day Challenge. Based on it's ending mood, I hope it's not my last. But it is what it is.... 

What Got Me Here

by Bill Kirk 

Certainly it's true, 

Some goals and objectives 

We reach by design. 

You know---the planned ones, 

For which we set our destinations, 

Whether figurative or literal, ahead of time; 

Then plot our path, 

Pack our provisions, 

And strike out, 

Relatively secure in the knowledge 

We will get there--- 

By our own two hands. 

Other times, pure serendipity wins the prize 

For getting us to where we are--- 

Landing us square in the middle of 

Good fortune or not, 

Where we are left 

To take advantage of unanticipated 

Targets of opportunity. 

And quick thinking alone 

Makes the outcome our own, 

As if we are the ones responsible somehow 

For being where we are, 

For better or worse. 

Yet, on occasion isn't it simply 

The passage of time 

That allows us simply to be, 

Never mind how we got to the spot? 

Mightn't such unplanned "while you wait" moments, 

Be the sum of the what and the how of where we are--- 

Like the instant between breaths 

When there is neither ebb nor flow? 

During those times, 

We sit in the midst of quiet or turbulence, 

Doing nothing in particular 

And certainly nothing of special value 

Or personal advantage in mind. 

Such circumstances of time and place 

Neither sought nor pursued 

Are gifts of a sort---wanted or not, 

For which there is nothing to do 

Beyond acknowledging the 

Unexpected blessing of another moment 

In hopes of a much delayed, 

Yet inevitable... 

End.