Lockstep With My Life
I just thought it was the coolest phrase. . . "lockstep with my life." I heard Whoopi Goldberg say it on "The View." I had turned in, undoubtedly, to hear the opening "hot topics" while I was folding my laundry and the discussion had turned to Paul McCartney, a guest on the show that day. Whoopi made the comment that McCartney's songs had always been "lockstep with her life."
Lockstep. What does this mean to you? What people, songs, books or movies or are lockstep with your life? Who knows you well enough to fall into step right beside you, walk with you, never missing a beat? What song can play the soundtrack of your life right now? When you were growing up? When you were newly married? What movie can you identify with? What book can you turn to again and again because you read it at a time in your life when you needed the words to help you grow?
I picture myself doing the "wizard skip" (you know, the Yellow Brick Road skip) down a high school hallway with my best friend Lynn. A true definition of "lockstep," physically representing the closeness that we had. Now, our friendship is defined by phone calls and emails that are dotted with other touch points, other memories and phrases that remind us how easily we can fall back into that place of intimacy. She is lockstep with my life, the big picture. She knows the whole story.
Now, there are others, who know the daily moments, who don't call before 8:12 A.M. because they know I am still outside waiting for Sam's bus, and who know that on Wednesday mornings I have choir rehearsals. Lisa knows to order me a diet Coke AND a water (no lemon) at lunch, and Cindy knows that the first Friday of the month I have writer's group. When Beth texts me at just the right moment with just the right words (usually right before I was going to call her) that's lockstep with my life.
James Taylor songs ("Only One,") Billy Joel tunes ("Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,") and nearly every 80's song defined me at one point or another (but mostly "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard.) There are books that I truly love (The Time Traveler's Wife, Jane Eyre, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.) and movies that capture me with a single scene, again and again ("Love, Actually" and "Notting Hill.") (Oh, and "Top Gun" and "Sleepless in Seattle" and "When Harry Met Sally," of course.)
My husband, my children, my parents, my brothers. . . all lockstep with my life for sure. That's a given. Some came earlier, some came later. But whatever the time frame, they have been right there with me on this journey, knowing me and loving me along the way. And each of THEM came complete with songs, and books and movies (think Green Eggs and Ham, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, "Viva La Vida," "Centerfold," "You Light up my Life," and "Suddenly I See," and the truly unforgettable eighties hit, "Waiting for a Star to Fall," by Boy Meets Girl.)
What is lockstep to your life? And who? And why? Take a step back, and look at the steps that you're making, and at the things and people that make this journey so uniquely yours. You may find it easier to take your next step when you remember that there are people locked-in right beside you, enjoying your journey, even singing along to the soundtrack that you have chosen.
Lockstep. What does this mean to you? What people, songs, books or movies or are lockstep with your life? Who knows you well enough to fall into step right beside you, walk with you, never missing a beat? What song can play the soundtrack of your life right now? When you were growing up? When you were newly married? What movie can you identify with? What book can you turn to again and again because you read it at a time in your life when you needed the words to help you grow?
I picture myself doing the "wizard skip" (you know, the Yellow Brick Road skip) down a high school hallway with my best friend Lynn. A true definition of "lockstep," physically representing the closeness that we had. Now, our friendship is defined by phone calls and emails that are dotted with other touch points, other memories and phrases that remind us how easily we can fall back into that place of intimacy. She is lockstep with my life, the big picture. She knows the whole story.
Now, there are others, who know the daily moments, who don't call before 8:12 A.M. because they know I am still outside waiting for Sam's bus, and who know that on Wednesday mornings I have choir rehearsals. Lisa knows to order me a diet Coke AND a water (no lemon) at lunch, and Cindy knows that the first Friday of the month I have writer's group. When Beth texts me at just the right moment with just the right words (usually right before I was going to call her) that's lockstep with my life.
James Taylor songs ("Only One,") Billy Joel tunes ("Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,") and nearly every 80's song defined me at one point or another (but mostly "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard.) There are books that I truly love (The Time Traveler's Wife, Jane Eyre, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.) and movies that capture me with a single scene, again and again ("Love, Actually" and "Notting Hill.") (Oh, and "Top Gun" and "Sleepless in Seattle" and "When Harry Met Sally," of course.)
My husband, my children, my parents, my brothers. . . all lockstep with my life for sure. That's a given. Some came earlier, some came later. But whatever the time frame, they have been right there with me on this journey, knowing me and loving me along the way. And each of THEM came complete with songs, and books and movies (think Green Eggs and Ham, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, "Viva La Vida," "Centerfold," "You Light up my Life," and "Suddenly I See," and the truly unforgettable eighties hit, "Waiting for a Star to Fall," by Boy Meets Girl.)
What is lockstep to your life? And who? And why? Take a step back, and look at the steps that you're making, and at the things and people that make this journey so uniquely yours. You may find it easier to take your next step when you remember that there are people locked-in right beside you, enjoying your journey, even singing along to the soundtrack that you have chosen.
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