This week marks a full year of the country shutting down. The feeling is so clear it’s like it was yesterday, but it also seems like our “normal” way of life was so long ago.
This week’s song is a reminder of what life was like before everything came to an abrupt stop. The rushing around, the constant choices that needed to be made. So much of everything that there was rarely time to just be. We’ve had a lot of just being this past year and so many choices were taken away that life before the pandemic seems like a different lifetime ago.
There’s so much information, what do you want to know?
So many beautiful places, where do you want to go?
So many important causes, how do you want to give?
So many inspirational stories, how do you want to live?
There were so many times when I would think of what I wanted to do, what I should do, but I’d get busy or overwhelmed and never got to it.
I’m full of good intentions
Though I rarely follow through
I’m a little overwhelmed
By all the things I need to do
There were always so many distractions. Although technology offers so many opportunities, we end up relying so much on them that it’s hard to balance everything because it all happens so quickly. In the early days of my working life, fax machines and typewriters were still regularly used in offices. Now we’re accessible 24/7 and can get work done on a cell phone we carry around in our purse.
I can’t remember my password, I’m having trouble logging in
My to-do list is growing, I’m not sure where to begin
Email, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram
I need apps to tell me where I’m going and to remind me where I am
It’s important to take breaks from all the noise so you have time to rejuvenate. So you have time to just breathe.
When every conversation seems to lead to an obligation
I have the inclination to not pick up the phone
With a limited amount of hours and an absence of magical powers
I need time to smell the flowers, I need time to be alone.
Hmmm, one thing to remember is to be careful what you wish for, right? How many people were longing for a break from their hectic life before it was forced upon them?
I wrote this song in 2016, before taking any songwriting classes so the structure is all off and there’s probably all kinds of things wrong with it, but I still find myself singing it from time to time. Maybe someday I’ll go back and rework it.
Here’s the song performed as a duet at an open mic with my friend Linda Enger in December 2016.
And here’s a little lyric video from 2018.
My Songwriting Journey 