‘Twas the night before Perfect, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring—spiders all shooed out;
This night had been looming since I was but a lad,
I knew that come midnight, Peace of Mind would be had!
The dogs had sprawled out on my bed, per the norm,
And the cats had curled up by the stove to get warm
That left only me, in my electronic hub,
Seeking simplicity—and I was right near the nub!

Everything was filed, and in its proper place
There was not a single loose end left, for to chase;
My mind map was solid, nodes linked and intertwined
My to-do list: ideal—nothing nagging my mind.
When outside the window, I thought I saw a light
And that spawned an idea that seemed just about right;
I tried to fight the idea off, but it was settling in to stay
My mind wanted to use that light, and it had found a way.

So I briefly relented, and let the new thoughts flow
Did some testing on Google, and what do you know?
“It doesn’t seem like anyone’s doing that yet;
That’ll make me the first—it’ll be a sure bet!”
I whispered this to myself, as my heart began to quicken;
I was having a New Idea, and I was happy as the dickens.
I bought a dot com domain name, and the dot org too,
As I usually do for a project that’s new;
My night was wide open, so I thought “What the heck?”
And I installed WordPress there with a clickety cleck.

By now I was thinking about how big this would be:
I’d have millions of page views, and end up on T.V.!
On Oprah! On Stewart! On Charlie Rose too!
Plus a guest appearance on the new Doctor Who!
With fans through the roof, and a rockin’ Facebook Wall
I’d cash my pay, and dash away, off to the mall!

Then it came time for my walk in the woods
I rallied the dogs and pulled up my hood,
The full moon was out; it was a beautiful night
The air was crisp, but not too much—a.k.a. just right.
Before long, my zippy mind was clear once again
Walking is—pun intended—my pathway to Zen.

We wandered around for an hour in the dark,
(I kept my flashlight in pocket, just for a lark);
Out there I caught sight of my Simpler Self
Who merrily showed me all my dreams on the shelf.
He drew me a view of my old life—jam-packed!
Reminded me how life had been, stuck in the stacks;
His eyes were so twinkly that I couldn’t resist,
And he made a great point before turning to mist:
“Tomorrow will be Perfect, with something new or not
Peace of Mind is in your head, in case you forgot!”

I went back inside, and saw the notes on my desk
Took a few moments to put that new project to rest;
It was two minutes ‘til Perfect, so I hustled off to bed
Made a good night’s sleep my new project instead.
And I had one final thought as I dozed off that night—
”Note to self: don’t forget that idea about the light.”

Lance Brown can be found at http://lancebrown.org, and followed at http://twitter.com/FreelanceLance. Archives of his column The Not-So-Simple Life can be found here.