Throw It All Away

At the beginning of each year, I usually find my self - like most other people- reflecting on the year gone by and taking stock of my accomplishments, or lack thereof as it may be. As I have repeated this process at the beginning of 2009, I've come up with a list of things I'm not going to do this year. A list of Anti-Resolutions, if you will.

What tops the list, you ask?

I have resolved that this year I'm not going to hold on to the memory of all the things I haven't done. I'm not going to feel guilty about my lack of accomplishment. I'm not going to lament the dreams that didn't come true or the plans that never saw fruition. I'm not going to regret the opportunities I let slip through my hands or berate myself for not doing more. In short, I'm going to let go of the past. Because no matter how much I beat myself up, it doesn't change a thing. I think I've finally realized that.

In honor of this new Anti-Resolution, I'm posting the lyrics to one of my most favorite songs by one of my most favorite bands, Toad the Wet Sprocket, from their album Coil. I happened upon this song as I was completing my workout yesterday, and I just had to share it.

Throw It All Away

Take your cautionary tales
Take your incremental gain
And all the sychophantic games
And throw 'em all away

Burn your tv in your yard
And gather 'round it with your friends
And warm your hands upon the fire
And start again

Take the story you've been told
The lies that justify the pain
The guilt the weighs upon your soul
And throw 'em all away

Tear up the calendar you've bought
And throw the pieces to the sky
Confetti falling down like rain
Like a parade to usher in your life
Take the dreams that should have died
The ones that kept you lying awake
When you should've been all right
And throw 'em all away

With the time i waste on the life i never had
I could've turned myself into a better man

'cause there ain't nothing you can buy
And there is nothing you can save
To fill the whole inside your heart
So throw it all away
Won't fill the whole inside your heart

Help me empty out this house
The wool i've gathered all these days
And thought i couldn't do without
And throw it all away

Music by glen phillips and toad. lyrics by glen phillips.