I guess most of us have our pet grief terms that we hate. My friend Penny was presenting yesterday and mentioned the “Heaven needed an angel.” line that people say to you when you’ve had a loved one transition. “Really? Heaven needed her more than I do? I think not.”
Moving forward is a term that sets my teeth on edge. Moving on. Getting past it. These are all variations on a theme. I don’t want to move forward. I don’t want to get over it. I struggle mightily with this concept. Am I a supposed to want to move forward? Because if I do, something’s wrong here.
Things come to me often in song lyrics. I think many songs are inspired, as in God-breathed and I find nuggets of truth in pop music all the time. Alan Parsons, Time is a poignant song, kind of sad I guess, but it’s always moved me.
Time
Flowing like a river
Time
Beckoning me
Who knows when we shall meet again
If ever
But time
Keeps flowing like a river
To the seaGoodbye my love
Maybe for forever
Goodbye my love
The tide waits for me
Who knows when we shall meet again
If ever
But time
Keeps flowing like a river (on and on)
To the sea
To the sea
Then there is Kirtana, a musician whose music I meditate to a lot. After the lyrics of Time came to me. The song is about how some of us (me) try way too hard in life and trying to “find God” and achieve spiritual awakening.
You don’t need to row your boat
to make it down this stream –
even that’s too much to do.
Just lean back and float –
it’s simpler than it seems.Let the river carry you.
Last week, in the Back To Your Center class, Mark made reference to the song Row Your Boat. This clever childhood song has one of the deepest mysteries of life explained in it. “Life is but a dream.” Just enjoy it and row downstream. But, Kirtana and Alan Parsons remind me that I don’t even have to row. I don’t have to “move forward”. Living this plane is living in a stream of Time and Time inexorably carries us down the stream, even if we put down our oars and just drift along with the current. I’m not trying to “move forward” or to get over anything. I’m just going to take one day at a time, each day as it comes and trust that Time will take me where I need to go.
Every night you offer up your busy mind to God,
allowing sleep to overtake.
And in the morning, if the offer were the same,
maybe you would fall “awake.”
Ah-ah-ah…. Could it be?
I know one good way to see.
That’s to trust the mystery
And give God a chance to find you.
Maybe God is trying to find you
