Time by Pink Floyd
The clock keeps ticking, yet there’s an alarm clock going off; it’s time to wake up. Rather than waiting for your real life to begin, it’s time to realize it’s already happening right now. No matter what you’re waiting for, try not to let it consume you.
For the past couple years, becoming parents has somewhat consumed Mike and I. It became even more consuming the past six weeks, after becoming officially licensed to foster. Every time my phone rings, my heart skips a beat thinking this could be our life-changing moment. But so far, most of the calls I’ve received have been scams, telemarketers, or the dentist confirming my upcoming appointment. We’ve avoided taking any time off work, so that we can use our PTO when we finally get our placement – and we could really use a break. And even though COVID-19 has kept us from doing much, we have avoided making any future plans or taking on any projects at work or home.
But our focus shifted this past week. We were on a Zoom support group with other new caregivers, and it was comforting to know we were not the only ones waiting. Though frustrating, the director of the agency shared some of the struggles leading to the waiting. But she also encouraged us to use this time to “fill (our) emotional cups.”
After the call, I ruminated about this seemingly simple idea. If our cups are empty, there will be nothing left in us to give. Yet if we take this time to fill our cups, we will have so much more to give to the child(ren) that we are blessed with. We are still excited and anxiously awaiting a phone call that will inevitably change our lives. Yet we are no longer putting the rest of our lives on hold while we wait. We are choosing to focus more on enjoying this time together and “filling our emotional cups.”
In an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd was quoted saying this about Time: “I spent an awful lot of my life – until I was about twenty-eight – waiting for my life to start. I thought that at some point I would turn from a chrysalis into a butterfly, that my real life would begin. So if I had that bit of my life to live again, I would rather live the years between eighteen and twenty-eight knowing that that was it, that nothing was suddenly going to happen – that it was happening all the time. Time passes, and you are what you are, you do what you do.”
I encourage you to not wait for an alarm to go off and your life to begin… The clock is already ticking and we need to make the most of the time we have. It can either be one day or Day one – so which one is it?
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way. Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town Waiting for someone or something to show you the way. Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain. You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, Shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way The time is gone, the song is over, Thought I'd something more to say. Home Home again I like to be here When I can When I come home Cold and tired It's good to warm my bones Beside the fire Far away Across the field Tolling on the iron bell Calls the faithful to their knees To hear the softly spoken magic spell
