Marbles In My Pocket ~ The Official Blog of Charles L. Mashburn ~ Poems, Short Stories, and random thoughts from the author of "Be Still… and know that I am God"

Songs have always moved me; some in a positive way, others just the opposite. Lines from songs have struck me as genius, some as profound, and some as simple truth. Interestingly, it took years for the truth of those lines to truly mean anything to me, and I too often wish I’d seen the wisdom in the words before I reached this age of… maturity. Yes, I admit, I wish I’d known then what I know now. I should have listened to the music.

Now… where I began is far behind me. I can’t even remember some of the roads I traveled, and I wonder how life might’ve been if I’d lived it all without fear.

We all do it. We scratch and claw our way to what we’re told is success, which translates to security, and then cling to it as if it can keep us safe from all harm, only to realize the light we obeyed for most of our years was the one in the middle; the yellow one. Oh sure, we often ignored and sped through it, telling ourselves if we stopped the guy behind us my plow into us. And so, we lived, caution being another word for fear. Green being just as frightening, and the red one to be avoided at all cost, because slowing down was bad enough, but stopping meant you’d given up, allowing something, someone, to take control.

But… what if we’d lived like we were dying? Would the knowledge our time was limited have caused us to throw caution to the wind? Would yellow have been meaningless, and red nothing more than a dare? How fast and how far would we have gone? Maybe not far. But we would have lived like there was no tomorrow. Or… like there was, and it counted. Counted, because it would give us more time to love, which, I’ve realized, perhaps too late, is what living is all about. Love is indeed, all we need.