Once in a Lifetime
It is the early evening and I’m sitting in a lit kitchen while the rest of the house is dark. Everyone is napping. There is little noise except the occasional dog scratch (they’re suffering from a frustrating round of flea bites). This sound of the quiet house unnerves me. I feel restless and unreal, like the part in Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” when he says “And you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?”
I’ve taken to walking the dogs at night (because I run into fewer small dogs who bark thereby causing my dogs to yank on the leash – one of these days, I swear they’re going to dislocate my shoulder or something). I always bring along my trusty little SanDisk clip and listen to music while I walk because without music, every little sound startles me on dark corners. This particular Talking Heads song came on the other night and I found myself grooving to it, which is probably why it is popping into my head right now.
I’m thinking of the lines “And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house / And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful wife” and I feel like calling up David Byrne and saying, “Yeah.”
Did you ever find yourself thinking you live too blessed a life? Some people might look at my life and say, girl, you SO don’t have it too good, because, yeah, we’ve got our share of financial woes going on right now. But there’s also some really exciting things going on (I still can’t bring myself to talk about it), and then there’s the fact that Husband and I have each other, we have amazing, thriving children, we have wonderful [albeit crazy and food-thieving] dogs, and we have friends and family out the wazoo. And to me, that’s having things good. Today being Valentine’s Day and all, I think I’ll just bask in this moment of a quiet empty, house and appreciate everything there is to love about my life.
I hear roller skates in the hallway. The Boy is up. He is in the kitchen now asking for water. Little No Limit just followed him into the kitchen rubbing her eyes. Little No Limit just reached down and bear hugged Her Name is Rio causing a scurrying of paws on the tile. I guess I’d better stop typing. Life in the house of Riley is noisy again, full of life… same as it ever was… same as it ever was…
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I LOVE that song! I started singing it to myself when the twins were born, and then when we moved to Africa. “How did I get here? This is not my beautiful house…” I wish they’d play that song on the Spanish buses…
Happy Valentine’s Day! You’re right of course–you are totally blessed. And so am I, even though my version lately goes, “WHERE is my beautiful house?”
First, yeah, I love that song. Second, I love it that you can see how blessed you truly are. In the scheme of things, financial woes come way down the list. Keep playing the song…and believing it!
Ya know, we did the same thing here. My parents came over, and so did Jan… and I cooked. It was a great time being surrounded by family!! We really are blessed!
It is amazing how lack of sound sometimes creates clarity. Thanks for posting this
Good for you! I think it’s so important to just stop every once in a while and just look around and be grateful for all we have. It’s so easy to get caught up in the I want and if only game. Thanks for this post!
This is so good to read… for so many reasons…
I love that you know just how blessed you are… in spite of some challenges. To appreciate what you have before you is, I believe, one of the major components to a happy life. None of this secret, make your best life crap. Not that all that stuff is crap… but to embrace where you are.
Also, the hint… the hint that is about what I hope it is… and I won’t say in case I am wrong and will wait patiently to hear from you.
And David Byrne! Every once in awhile I read his blog and that man is just too brainy for me… but I LOVE his music from that era. And that song in particular.
You hit it out of the ballpark today!
Great post. Lot of truth in there. I’m wondering what the good news is
On a similar note, I was driving home from work the other day and heard “I’m too sexy for my shirt.” I wanted to call Right Said Fred and say: “Dude, same mind.”
Hang in there though seriously. I know I’ve had my “wtf?” moments looking at my life. They usually pass and then I feel damn lucky, as you seem to feel judging by your post. Moods are funny things, sometimes they pass and sometimes they linger. Damn those lingering ones!