Reflections on Shuffle-Play
The Moment – by Toad the Wet Sprocket
Not long ago, a friend was talking about retirement. She wasn’t talking about it in some far-off “someday” kind of way. Rather, she is actually planning to retire in a few years. We are the same age. I have another friend who has already retired.
Meanwhile, I still feel like I’m just getting started. Sure, these friends started their careers a bit before me while I took time off to travel and get my master’s degree – but still, I wasn’t that far behind.
The years haven’t passed in the blink of an eye, but I’m now firmly at that place in life where I realize I likely have more of life behind me than in front of me. I’m comfortable not dying the gray hairs into submission every six weeks. I’m fine with the wrinkles setting in – they mark so much that I have lived through and learned. I’m not as okay with the chin hairs sprouting anew daily, the way my feet look more and more like my mother’s feet, and how I’m pretty sure my hearing is not very good anymore. However, I’ve had a front row seat to aging for a long time as I have visited the elderly in their homes and hospitals and nursing homes. I know how important it is to take care of myself and especially to savor the time that I get. Because…
Someday I might not be able to run.
Someday I might not be able to drive.
One day my children will be grown so it is important to do everything I can with them now.
One day all the push and pull of my career will be over – so I must work hard to do my best, live it, love it…
One day I will be an old woman, so why not love being a middle-aged woman while I can.
In time, everything will change and I’ll need to fill the spaces of time in which I used to be taking my kids back and forth to practices, play dates, and appointments.
In time, I won’t be the first person my boys want to tell about their day.
Eventually this very day will be one that I will look back upon and marvel at everything I had: two beautiful young boys whose worlds revolved around me, a hard-working, smart husband, a kind, peaceful church, a beautiful parsonage with a small lake and a field in the back yard, the ability to run, to write, to do anything in the world I want to do with this day.
It’s heart-stopping when you pause to realize how precious it all is. This moment. This one. It’s the only one we have.
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is but a dream. What will you do with this one moment you have?
The Moment
By Toad the Wet Sprocket
Shame doesn’t become you
There are no mistakes in the final view
No blame, how could it be so wrong
That your heart was braver than your will was strong
For every path you follow there’s another left behind
Every door you don’t kick open there’s a million more to try
And for everything you’ve taught me here’s the one
I’ve learned the best
There is nothing but the moment
Don’t you waste it on regret
I’ll go, but who will you have to be
Will you just get by or get what you need
Just know that I don’t need to fit in
But is there room for you in your life with him?
For every path you follow there’s another left behind
Every door you don’t kick open there’s a million more to try
And for everything you’ve taught me here’s the one
I’ve learned the best
There is nothing but the moment
Don’t you waste it on regret
It’s out of my hands, out of my hands
But I miss my friend, I miss my friend
So this is the price of honesty
But I’m not sorry
For every path you follow there’s another left behind
Every door you don’t kick open there’s a million more to try
And for everything you’ve taught me here’s the one
I’ve learned the best
There is nothing but the moment
Don’t you waste it on regret
The moment is happening now
The moment is passing
The moment is happening now
The moment is passing
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