Story Behind The Song

I was sitting in the smallest room of my house one day and the first few lines of this song came to me almost completely out of the blue. This goes to prove inspiration can come at the oddest times and that a songwriter should always carry a notepad since I had to yell to my wife to write the words down for me. The association of time of day with age was a natural flow and set up the structure for the rest of the lyrics. The steady stream of the words in the chorus have a rather subtle device whereby the last two words of each line could also be the first two words of the next line. That started on accident but became a conscious effort once I noticed it. If cleverness hits me in the shins I WILL look down and see it! Overall the music is somewhat reflective of the course of a life, too. The opening is quiet and slow, much like our early years, followed by adulthood and its tremendous changes of job, family, and establishing our identities represented in the key change and increased tempo. The original pace of the song returns as it speaks of the final years and our reflections on what we have provided in our children. This tune was a real foreshadowing of my life as a few months after I began writing it my wife was pregnant with our first child. I find that the bridge has taken on a new and powerful significance for me, and I can still get a little choked up singing it.

Song Description

The passing of the day as a metaphor for the growth of a child.

Lyrics

Outside children are playing
Dawn and the sun's first light
Innocence and wonder awakened
A morning of simple delights

School passes slowly yet fast
Soon graduation at last
Still learning but off on your own
In this world chart a course all alone

(triplet)

The eternal clock is ticking

Time limits what we have to give
Account and record the days we live
As if we've nothing reckoned
Could really ever save a second
Changes all our dreams
Aren't as predictable as the means
To push us off from all our plans
Will meet the touch of other's hands

Sun's high, life in full bloom
Don't rush to find afternoon
Savor the richness of youth
A journey pursuing truth

A ring, a vow, a life anew
Miracle from love of two
Teach them wisdom, and joy
Life's lessons for both girl and boy

(triplet)

The eternal clock is ticking

CHORUS

SOLO

Providing example and watching them grow
Influence subtle in ways that you'll never know
The next generation will follow your lead
A family's great contribution to society's desperate need

With working days finished
The children grown and gone
There's finally time to contemplate
All you have seen and done
An auburn autumn sunset
Sheds a rich but fading light
Lengthens towards a winter's silence
Immortal as the starry night