While raking the leaves in my backyard a week and a half ago, I was listening to a Pandora station that I've titled "Three Dog Night Radio". It's full of music from the Seventies...but that's okay, because so am I.
Jackson Browne's song, Running on Empty, came on. It's always been an enjoyable listen, but with the earbuds in, I could understand the lyric better than ever before.
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-oh-one
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on
Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I'm running behind
Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive
In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned onto the road I'm on
Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I'm running behind
Everyone I know, everywhere I go
People need some reason to believe
I don't know about anyone but me
If it takes all night, that'll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
Look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too
Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I'm running behind
Honey you really tempt me
You know the way you look so kind
I'd love to stick around but I'm running behind
You know I don't even know what I'm hoping to find
Running into the sun but I'm running behind
Truth is...In sixty-nine I was turning twelve and called neither the road nor much of anything else my own. Teenage angst was a couple years away and mid-life despair was unimaginable. But I consider these words now and feel empathy and compassion for those who don't know how they ended up on the road they're on...those who "don't even know what [they're] hoping to find" and constantly feel like they're running behind. I understand and ache for those who "look around for the friends that [they] used to turn to to pull [them] through; looking into their eyes [and] see them running, too."
If you find yourself at that point of your journey, I invite you to click on the "Hope" label and see what this blog has had to say about all that.
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