Never Be Again, Never Been Before

All my blogs [essays] have been titled with song lyrics. I just love lyrics, so much expression poured into an on average, two-to-five-minute poem, set to music. Love that.

Today though, I’m feelin’ a song that’s quite possibly my favorite song…you know, if I had to pick just one song because my life depended on it, or something. Like that would ever happen.

My song du jour is called “This Moment” by Matthew Sweet. It’s not really well known, as far as radio-play goes.

It’s actually an amazing cover of an original song by an interesting singer-songwriter named Victoria Williams. It was included on a benefit cd (for Williams) that my sister gave me & I coveted back in the early 90s, called Sweet Relief.

This was at a particularly notable time for my own musical history. The music I loved then meant so much to me, and has really stayed with me.

Cassettes were pretty much a thing of the past, and cd’s were the standard (& still expensive…unless you were a “member” of Columbia House), but recordable cd’s were still rare, most cars still had cassette players. So everyone made mixes on blank tapes!

This song was included on a cassette from a memorable set of blanks that I’d filled for everyday listening, as well as for car trips. I loved every single song.

Even now when I hear many of the songs just as they end I hear the opening sounds of what would have played next on my favorite ‘mixed tapes’.

I guess I should try to recreate them on some iTunes Playlists…

But I’m getting off track, oops. (Music often does that to me)

Sometimes lyrics are so poignant. They can still be simple, even sparse, or filled with gorgeous words that roll off the tongue. But they don’t have to be anything in particular to speak to you. They just have to “hit you”.

This moment will never come again
I know it because it has never been before
I listen to the rain outside the door
A thousand voices singing songs that ain’t been sung before

It’s this song that brings me back into the present and reminds me that this moment, this very second in time, is all that we have for sure. And that we’ve never experienced it before, nor will we ever again.

This song reminds me of all the fabulous moments that I’ve ever had, and conversely all of the worst ones. Time is a “double-edged sword”, we don’t really have time, and yet we never really had it.

We only ever have this moment.

Some days while lost in reverie
I find the very hours have slipped away from me
As the sunlight dances through the leaves
The patterns they awaken me
And I say hey…hey now

You know? Don’t you just love that? It evokes memories of hot months as a kid on summer vacation. Popsicles, sun hats, and the cartoons were pretty much only on TV on Saturday mornings.

We would spread quilts in our empty kiddie pool, grab pillows and “camp out” there in the afternoon sun, with nowhere to be and nothing we had to be doing. Depending on where we had put the pool, the sun might be dappled by the trees.

If we fell asleep and woke up disoriented, the sun would be in a different spot. But at 7 that never mattered, life was pretty carefree and easy. Those were some great moments.

Where we are now
Soon it will be then
It’s nothing more, nothing less
Than the place that we are in…

Summers now…well, we have to make time for doing nothing. Everybody’s rushing around from here to there, often feeling guilty unless it’s scheduled vacation time.

We’re busy folks, for the most part. We’re plugged-in, logged-on, on-line, over-tired, stressed-out…and yet, with everything that we think that we must-have to be happy…all we ever have is in the current moment.

This moment
Will never be again,
Never been before

Thank you once again music, for getting me out of my own way and reminding me what is important.

Off to live in this moment…

 

 

Raina K Morton June 21 2014

*And hey, if you’re so inclined, the song This Moment by Matthew Sweet can be heard over there on the sidebar under Tunes, #10