“In the garden, I see, west purple shower bells and tea orange birds and river cousins dressed in green.”
Beautiful, isn’t it?
Read it again slowly.
It sounds like a poem pulled from some dusty anthology or maybe something you’d find in the margins of an old college notebook, but it’s not.
It is a lyric from a soulful 1970's song that most of us have heard a hundred times. The funny part is, we have sung along to it for years, never realizing how poetic it really is.
Life is like that.
We hear things all the time, but we don’t always listen. We hear our friends’ words, our children’s laughter, our parents’ advice, our partner’s sighs. Yet half the time, we let them roll off like background music. We hum along without catching the lyrics.
Friendship, marriage, parenthood, they all have a soundtrack. Some songs are loud and joyful. Others are soft and a little broken. And sometimes, like this one, they are so layered that you don’t understand them until you finally stop and listen. That is when you realize the message was there all along, waiting for you to pay attention to it.
We live in a noisy world.
There is always another notification, another headline, another reason to rush past what matters. The older that I get, the more I believe that the good stuff; the truth, the heart, the meaning always hides in the quiet parts of the song.
We are seventy-six days away from a new year. Seventy-six days to start listening instead of just hearing. To pick up the phone when someone crosses your mind. To notice the color of the sky instead of complaining about the weather. To listen when your kids talk, even if it’s about nothing.
Because one day, you will wish you could hear that voice again...
...that laugh, that tone, that melody that once filled your kitchen, your car, your life. Today we are doing something that we will cherish tomorrow.
So today, slow down and listen.
Really listen.
The garden, the birds, the traffic jams, the B-side, the friends, the neighbors, the colleagues, the family.
They have been singing to you all along. Time to listen to the lyrics because life doesn't have the words inside the album cover.
It is Friday... I don't know about you, but I would like a steak, medium rare, a bourbon that coats the back of my throat peacefully and a kiss that doesn't bite back...
Gusto and astonishment this weekend!
