“Moving Ahead So Life Won’t… Pass Me By”

I’ve been doing a lot of walking lately. Between the sequester, and the Spring, and changes I’ve been contemplating in my Life, I’ve been gifting my Self with the glory of long, meaningful walks. Sometimes talking with friends, but mostly, connecting with my Self.

“Like the pine trees lining the winding road, I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name.  Like the singing bird and the croaking toad, I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name…”

Especially now, I’ve been moved to load my phone up with long-ago songs that touch my Soul. Stir my Heart. And remind my Self of the person I was in the days of my youth.

“… Moving me down the highway… Rolling me down the highway…moving ahead so life won’t pass me by…”

I’ve found that listening to music of my past while walking, running, and taking in the grandeur of the desert landscape profoundly moves me, touching a space so deep and so passion-filled within my Soul, that it almost physically hurts.  

As a psychologist and through my own personal healing and growth work, I’ve learned that when an experience taps down so deeply within your Soul, your Psyche is telling you, “LISTEN”

“…And I’m gonna go there free…   Like the fool I am and I’ll always be… I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream.  They can change their minds, but they can’t change me. I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream…”

I grew up listening to the music of Jim Croce. He was one of my favorite singer / songwriters who stirred me to DREAM.  Who painted images of Life so rich and so beautiful with his poetic lyrics, that it swashed my Psyche with meaning. Emotion. And Hope,  for a future that promised profound and actualized dreams. 

“Like the north wind whistling down the sky, I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song.  And I carry it with me and I sing it loud, If it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proud.”

His Soulful songs carved out an emotional template within my young girl’s Psyche that insisted I Dream.  That moved my Spirit, and caused me to commit deep within my Self to create a Life that would be meaningful. A Life in which I would be emotionally Alive. Connected. And Fulfilled.  Without question. Without compromise.

Without a doubt.

“…Moving me down the highway, rolling me down the highway, moving  ahead so life won’t pass me by…”

But somewhere along the path of the past few challenging years, my young girl’s Soul began to lose sight of her Dreams. Her heart’s connection. Her commitment made long ago, to her Self.  Life got complicated.  And called for compromise.  Too much compromise. 

And I found my Self beginning to believe the myth that Life could pass me by, too.

“Like the fool I am and I’ll always be… I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream.”  They can change their minds, but they can’t change me. I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream…”

But then I began to walk.  And ponder.  And LISTEN to my music.  First, within my phone. And then, within my Soul.

“…Moving me down the highway, rolling me down the highway, moving  ahead so life won’t pass me by…”

Thankfully, because of those glorious walks. Or perhaps because of the intensity of the emotion that got stirred SO deeply within my Self when I first played Jim Croce’s songs on my old turntable, and then again on my iphone walks, the Dreamer little girl inside woke up.  And reconnected.  And then my Adult Self, recommitted.  

To compromise no longer.  

“…Moving me down the highway, rolling me down the highway, moving  ahead so life won’t pass me by…”

When’s the last time you walked, pondered, connected, or LISTENED to the music of your Soul?

Times of contemplation, connection to Self, and reflection on what was and what is now, allow us to consider which path we are journeying down. The path of the Dreamer.  Or the path of the Compromised.

If you are no longer living a Life that supports the hopes and dreams of your past Self, PLEASE, consider turning on some music that connects your Adult Self with your Youthful Self.

And ask, “Are we living in such a manner that Life won’t pass us by?