wouldon't it be nice?

i was outside this morning when i saw an old
rope swing layin' under a tree.
wow.
how have i missed seein' that all these years???
oh, yeah.....the guys have had a car parked over there
for ages now....that would hide it.
but there it was.
and i just stopped and looked at it laying there.
i could hear the guys as kids, squealin' about it,
yellin' 'higher' and wanting to go faster....i could
see the spinning and laughing....i could see the shorts
and tank tops, the tans, messy hair....
i was back in the days of my kids bein' kids.

and then i floated back. saw the old board layin' in
the dusty dirt....the rope a different color now, all
worn and old....

i took a walk and thought of all the changes in life.
and how it's such a mix of wonderful and hard....
wouldn't it be nice if the guys were still kids??
but then i thought of all we've shared as they've become
young men.

i thought of my marriage.
wouldn't it be nice if i was still married....uh....happily, of
course. and that we had an intact, happy family.
yeah.
but then i woulda missed all that's happened since the
break up...

then i really got rollin'....
wouldn't it be nice if....
wouldn't it have been nice if.....
and each time there was a response 'yeah, but then i'd
have missed this.......or that.........'

i've heard the 'you can't go back, you can't stop time, the world
can't stand still' stuff forever.....
but i really saw it this morning.
it's hard to let go of things that were wonderful at some point.

but it's the very definition of life, isn't it?
it's not about holding on to.
it's about flowing with.

it's in the holding that i stop living....
just as it's in the flowing that i truly am
living....

wouldn't it be nice if i could just remember that?!