Just a Few Seconds
From the Album Just a Few Seconds
Once upon a distant time
Before the world was yours or mine
Seasons went and seasons came
While seconds passed by just the same
As the seconds that still pass us by
Some that laugh and some that cry
Marching forward with the strength of time
Not caring where we draw the line
Chorus
Oh oh don’t look back
The tolling bell will never crack
Whether your time is short or long
In just a few seconds, you’ll be gone
When dreams come calling to our beds
The grandest scenes may fill our heads
They have no reason have no rhyme
They’ve no respect for tide nor time
I heard it said that the longest dream
Will pass in seconds though it might not seem
So seize the day and make it yours
And set your sails to distant shores
Time weighs heavy on a waiting child
While loving parents stop and smile
Wishing that they could slow the time
Before their children start to climb
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG
During my songwriting binge in the summer of 2020, I thought it was about time I wrote a song to support my autobiography of the same name, even if it was ten years overdue.
I found that writing my autobiography was a pleasant experience, but I did get stuck on the first paragraph, which I always think is the most important. I didn’t want the standard opening “I was born in bla bla,” but how else do you start an autobiography? Then one day our local church bell started tolling to tell us someone in the area had died. For me, it literally did ring a bell and gave me my first paragraph.
One of the drawbacks of writing your memoirs is the awareness of just how quickly time has passed. One minute I was writing about an episode from my twenties and then, boom! the next thing I knew, I was in my forties. If you are interested in genealogy, it gets worse. You look at a census form that your grandfather was listed on and see he was nine years old at the time. Ten minutes later, you have seen him get married, bring up five children, die and find that all his children have also passed on. If you are young, this won’t make much sense to you but trust me, one day it will.