Wednesday, September 16, 2009

FEEL (Chicago)

So everybody's pulling you in all directions
You don't know how much longer to take it
So you've learned how to fake it
That smile on the outside's fading fast
Like the things that you thought for sure would last
But they didn't
You know something's missing
Is it your life you're not living?
[Chorus:]Your heart is cold, your soul is numbYou don't like who you've become
You played the game and paid the cost for long enough
So grab the reins, yeah, take the wheel Lose what's not and keep what's real
It's not too late,Just close your eyes and feel, feel
You can't tell if you're happy or sad
Can't tell the good from bad
It's senselessTo waste your senses
Maybe stop thinking with your head
Start using your heart instead
Just try itYou just might like it
Aren't you dying to start livin'?
[Chorus]
Every breath that's going thru you
Take each day that's given to you
To love back the ones who love you
[Chorus]
You can't tell if you're happy or sad
Can't tell the good from the bad
Feel and stop thinking with your head
Start using your heart instead
Your heart is cold, your soul is numb
Yeah, yeah, yeah...You've played the game for long enough, oh, no, no
Everybody's pulling you in all directions.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday afternoon I attended the funeral of a cousin of my husband. When the funeral began a somewhat nontraditional funeral song was played. As the song started playing one of the funeral attendees even let out an “oh my Go*!” I heard some grumbles and groans from others as well. And yes, even I, myself, let out a little non-approving “hmm.” The song played and was almost to the end, it was then that my little 9 year old son looked up at me and very innocently said “Mama that must have been a song that she wanted them to play at her funeral.” I thought to myself at that moment, yes, you know it probably was and who am I to think or say what should or should not be played at a funeral. In my mind’s eye I could see her enjoying that song, singing to it, and possibly even dancing to it. Why not play that song?
As the minister stood and began to give his usual funeral message my thoughts wandered to the girl in the casket, this precious life that had been taken too soon. I had not been a part of her life much as an adult but I remembered back to when I was a child and though we were not good friends, we had still been “friends.” I remembered her free spirit with a bit of mischievous. I remembered the way she smiled and laughed; her zest for life. I looked to the front of the parlor at some of her friends and thought, you know, they must have really loved her. How fortunate we all were to have her in our lives at one time or another. No, life had not always been peaches and cream for this dear soul, she probably didn’t always make the best choices or decisions for her life, I just know that if the time comes that I am lying in the casket and people are there for my funeral that they will remember me at my best and forget the bad parts.
Thinking back now at some of the lyrics of the song that was played, well, I’ve also “got a friend in Jesus” and when I die I can’t wait to go to the “Spirit in the sky.”