Poems, Prayers and Promises

Kierkegaard once said "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards". I can appreciate that statement more, now, as I am living closer to the end of my life than the beginning of it. That is not meant to sound morbid but instead, realistic. I spend a lot of my time reflectively; and even in that, I have not yet figured out the answers and meaning of big life questions like what does redemption really mean? and where does all our positive and negative energy go? I believe what Kierkegaard is saying is that the forward of life is what changes our understanding of what we have believed in the past. I would change his quote a bit and say that to understand what life has been to us, we can only know through the continual process of questioning that life.

One of my favorite songwriters is John Denver, mainly because in the 70s when he was recording music, I was coming of age. His music of hopefulness and simplicity resonated with me, because the future loomed so large in front of me. I had no idea how rich and full my life would turn out to be nor how much pain it would hold. I still love his music today because it reminds me that who I was and what I believed to be right and just in the 1970s is still part of me, though refined through the experiences of loss and joy in time.

I've been fixated on the lyrics of his song Poems, Prayers and Promises. It reminds me of what really matters in a 'whole' life, what matters to me in my whole life:

"Talk of poems and prayers and promises and things that we believe in

How sweet it is to love someone, how right it is to care

How long it's been since yesterday and what about tomorrow?

What about our dreams and all the memories we share?"

I can remember clearly poems, prayers and promises of my younger self. I am still making new poems, prayers and promises with people I love. The beauty of age and time is that our wonder never has to end even as meaning can be revealed. Again, with Denver's lyrics:

"I've been lately thinking about my life's time

All the things I've done, how it's been

And I can't help believing in my own mind

I know I'm gonna hate to see it end."

My hope is we can all live forward regardless of what time holds for us. Our dreams and our memories may have merged into a life and that life still contains

the poems, prayers and promises and things that we believe in.