leave it to me to quote Rolling Stones lyrics as potential life-altering advice, but in reality I don't think truer words have ever been spoken. It has recently become my motto for everything because it's so perfect. It seems like I've lost everything and today I'd swear I did. Today it seemed like everything I had ever known had changed and everything was falling apart around me. But when it came down to it, I still had the things I needed at the moment I needed them. I just needed to use them and appreciate them.
When I felt like I had nothing left, that's when I realized everything that I really had. That clean-slate I was talking about, I found it. I can't change what has happened, but I can make the future worth living. I have a fresh start, a chance to do what I need to do.
I heard this song played at a funeral once, my second-cousin Debbie. I never really knew her because for the last sixteen years of her life she was stuck in a hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm. Do you think she wanted that? But for sixteen-or-so years she clung to life, struggling to communicate with the world and trying to have a relationship with her twin daughters who had been born shortly before her aneurysm. But she fought and she was able to continue her life with the things she truly needed. She was surrounded by the ones she loved and for years she held on until she was just too tired. And at her funeral people cried, people who had known her only the last few years of her life. They cried because this brave woman fought for what was truly important and held on until the very end.
You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need. I realized what I really need, and I found out how much it was worth to me. I can't take anything for granted now, not after today. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. It's amazing how you wake up in the morning and you never realize how that day could change everything. Today I learned how to live.
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I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she was gonna meet her connection,
At her feet was her foot-loose man.
And you can't always get what you want,
Honey, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find you get what you need!
We went down to the demonstration to get our fair share of abuse,
Singing, We gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we'll blow a fifty amp fuse
So, I went to the Chelsea Drugstore to get your prescription filled
I was standing in line with my friend, Mr. Jimmy
And man, did he look pretty ill
We decided that we would have a soda,
My fav'rite flavor was cherry red
I sing this song to my friend, Jimmy,
And he said one word to me and that was dead
And you can't always get what you want, honey
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find you get what you need!
I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practised at the art of deception,
I could tell by her blood-stained hands
And you can't always get what you want, honey
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want,
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find you get what you need!
And you can' always get what you want, honey,
You can't always get what you want,
You cant always get what you want,
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find you get what you need!
-You Can't Always Get What You Want
The Rolling Stones
