You are old now but you don’t feel very wise
You just know that you’re not ready to die
You’re still hanging on, not doing much else
Just the few things that you can still do for yourself
Your kids come to see you once in a while
At the old folks home, and wonder why you don’t smile
You tell them you feel like you’ve been pushed to the side
You tried to avoid it, the Lord knows you tried
You’re an afterthought, now, as the world moves ahead
For most people you knew, you’re already dead
What were you thinking to think your legacy would survive
Most people never even knew you were alive
What you do have is time to look back on your days
You count your mistakes and then count the ways
You failed yourself and the ones you held close
And it’s those realizations that hurt you the most
You had plenty of victories but they now seem so hollow
When thoughts of your failures are the thoughts that follow
You thought you were really hot shit for awhile
But none of that matters as you trudge your last mile
When you have time alone you spend some of it crying
It’s too late to change things and you know you are dying
And your mind betrays you, you can’t stop it from thinking
But you have to do something to keep yourself from sinking
The constant thinking was making you dizzy
You had to find a way to keep yourself busy
So you started to help others exiled to this place
And their appreciation helped you feel less erased
The opportunity to help, it’s something to do
And it’s always right there, right in front of you
Helping people is like insurance rather than a bet
When you get to the end, there’ll be fewer regrets
Your whole life it was there hidden by your fear and doubt
But it’s never too late to figure it out
The measure of a life is how little or how much
You touch other lives where they yearn to be touched
