I have loved this song since it appeared on the Wildflowers album, 22 years ago. I know it off by heart, inside out and upside down. There is a couplet in the lyrics that I cherish, because it speaks to my heart, my soul.
I am an inveterate worrier. A few years before he died I had a long conversation with my Dad, about The Troubles in Ireland, and how they were affecting his brother and my cousins. I was terrified. His advice has stuck with me, even when I can’t adhere to it:
“Why worry about things that you can’t control? It’s a waste of time and energy.”
Anyway, the lyric in this gorgeous song is:
“I’m so tired of being tired
Sure as night will follow day
Most things I worry about
Never happen anyway.”
Today, as this song cropped up in a playlist, I found myself gazing off into the distance, transfixed by the words and just amazed at how much they have determined my life. My wife quotes that lyric at me, a lot, whenever I cannot sleep for worrying about some work situation that is out of my control, or some change of our circumstances that I can’t do anything about.
So, what songs and lyrics have you gazing off into the distance, or have become a mantra for your life?
For some reason this makes me go all wistful.