In my life

Just like many who grew up in the ’60s, I am a fan of the Beatles, and enjoyed their music as it evolved from Love Me Do, to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, to Let it Be and so on. Of their numerous songs, many of which topped the charts, and most of which I like very much, there is one that I particularly like, and that is “In My Life.”

This song has become a favorite because it has a lilting and pleasant melody, a unique and interesting instrumental interlude, and meaningful and arresting lyrics.

The first part of the song goes:

There are places I remember

All my life, though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone, and some remain

All these places have their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life, I’ve loved them all.

I don’t really know why this song has again been playing in my mind more often these days.

Perhaps, it is because I have taken on the blessing of a new job, another phase in my life, making yet another set of friends, and this is happening in this, my birth month of February.

Perhaps, it has something to do with having become a senior citizen, together with the rest of the baby boomers, a stage that has made me more and more reflective about life.

It could also have something to do with the passing on of the torch in Couples for Christ, the community I have long served. New leaders have come forward and, happily, have taken on the mission with equal zeal and commitment. But this also makes me recall more and more the mission companions I have served with, a few of whom are dead, but, thankfully, many more are still living, and responding to new horizons the Lord is opening up for them.

There is of course nostalgia, coming with the realization that with my new situation, I may no longer be able to do many of the things I did before — go on mission trips here and abroad and trek to far and hard-to-reach places. It is likely that no longer will I see again many of the friends and co-servants who shared those mission moments with me. Some will eventually just become people and places I will remember all my life, unlikely to be encountered again.

Perhaps. But then, new friends and places and challenges beckon. A new exciting ride is just beginning. And so, beyond the reminiscing and the nostalgia, the song makes me stop and think and appreciate God’s gift of the cycle of life. Just like Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town,” the life cycle indeed goes on — babies are born, they grow up, they fall in love, get married, become parents themselves, they grow old, and eventually die. But at every stage though, there is beauty and meaning even in the simple and ordinary, and we ought to live each phase fully.

We must not lose out in this cycle. We must savor every moment of the gift of life that the Lord offers to us. For the stages in the cycle do not come back in their same form. We must seize the moment, because in what we go through in life, unlike videos and CDs, there is “no rewinding, no replay” (from a Jose Mari Chan song).

We need to capture the blessing of fullness of life, burn with passion for every gift and time that the Lord gives us. Passion should not be mistaken for being forever busy. It is also to strongly desire a deepening of our relationship with God through our daily quiet time. It is also loving our spouse and children and expressing that love every time in words and action. It is strengthening the bond of friendships among brethren in community and in the circles we move around in, old and new and future, in an ever-widening circle of wonderful people. Fullness of life includes “wasting” time in an unhurried visit to the sick and the elderly or to those grieving the loss of a loved one. Yes, fullness of life also means being aware of our mortality, and therefore proactively pursuing our dreams when we still can, asking for God’s guidance and blessing and empowerment.

The song continues:

But of all these friends and lovers

There is no one compares with you

And these memories lose their meanings

When I think of love as something new

Though I know I’ll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I’ll often stop and think about them

In my life I love you more.

One can readily read the significance of these lines. Spouses need to thank the Lord for bringing them to each other, and thus should be faithful to the gift of each other. From among many, the Lord chose one and the other, to be together as husband and wife sharing a life’s journey. Let us rejoice in that, let us respect that, and let us love our marriage strong enough to protect it, including from past relationships. All other “memories should lose their meanings” and instead, in our lives of togetherness as a couple, we pray that indeed, we find ourselves loving each other more.

So, where have all these musings on a Beatles song led me? Well, I find myself in an overwhelming posture of thanksgiving.

I thank the Lord for the life He has gifted us with, and for filling our lives with special moments. For one, the birth of a baby, a bundle of miracle in itself, is an expression that God still looks at us with favor, for in the birth of a child, we see His love and intention for the human race to continue generation after generation. Pity those who want to stop life and who cannot see the gift in every life. They are missing out on a lot.

I thank the Lord for the blessing of family, where we first experience life and love. I thank God for the gift of friends and community, they who support us in this walk with the Lord, young and old, each one with a role to play. We indeed should not “lose affection for people and things that went before.”

In My Life, although a secular song, can lift us up spiritually, and inspire us to live our lives fully, love faithfully, value friendships, and find joy every moment and in every setting and stage of our continuing mission, and as we do so, move us to thank God for the gift of life.