Tiptoes and Leaps

Life rarely falls into a steady gait

On a linear sidewalk, narrow and straight

But is a whimsical series of tiptoes and leaps

Along precarious tightropes, down hair-raising steeps

Across the fast-flowing rapids of water below

Springing onto a jagged line of slippery stones

Sometimes in this overwhelming, Olympian feat

We overlook those brief moments so tranquil and sweet

When we rest for a moment beneath a shade tree

Or pause on a mountain peak to breathe and to see

All the beauty that exists in this world far and near

All the reasons for living that we hold so dear.