Bittersweet

Tilting on a spinning top 
Keeping balance by a thread
One’s life whirling ‘til it flops 
Waiting ‘til it moves ahead  

Mesmerized by glorious gain
Flinging, crashing uncontrolled
Excited to start o’er again 
Climb to heights as yet untold 

Ordeals leaving one undone 
When the air becomes too thin 
Survival orders one come down 
Bittersweet the efforts then 

Yet all climbing’s not in vain
Lessons hard won realized there 
Good from hardship can become 
Sweetness born of bitter fare 

Is not this earth a tilting top
Spinning in a cosmic place 
Lest we forget Who starts and stops 
We’re at His mercy and His grace