Everything's Younger

Everything’s younger by the side of the tracks
In the shade of a late afternoon
So take a deep breath and just lean yourself back,
You know the future comes way too soon

The sunlight stretches its fingers through the oak tree
And I stretch my fingers right back
I take one step toward you, you come a million miles to me
And everything’s younger by the side of the tracks
And now I see

My friend is balancing on one leg,
suddenly twelve years old
and finding all those rusted iron treasures
that we collected years ago
He’s thinking about getting home to his family,
but he reminds me how they laid these tracks
all the way across the country
little by little and day by day

So don’t look back
And don’t say no
You’ve come a long way
But you’ve still got a ways to go

Sittin’ on the edge between the day and the night
In the shade of a late afternoon
It’s a curious property of the evening light
Whatever it touches looks brand new
And suddenly

I see the train lights in the distance,
and testing a theory I bend
to touch my head to the tracks so I can listen,
but I can’t hear the train yet
I’m thinking about all my superstitions,
and now I know everything takes time
Life may not turn out just like you imagine,
but as long as you’re moving you’re doing fine

So don’t look back…

The sun slips down and the light leans back
For one last touch of gold
But everything’s younger by the side of the tracks,
And I just turned twelve years old
So don’t look back
And don’t say no
'Cause everything’s younger by the side of the tracks,
And I just turned twelve years old
Yeah, everything’s younger by the side of the tracks,
And I’ve got a long, long way to go

I wrote this song in one of those “in between moments” that can be so stressful in life. I was just finished with college, and once again asking myself what to do with the rest of my life. I find these moments quite nerve-wracking.

One afternoon I was waiting for a train with a friend of mine. The sun was setting through the still-leafy branches of late summer, the air was still. We sat down by the railroad tracks, and I took out the guitar, and just relaxed a little bit.

It helps me to remember that perhaps one doesn’t have to figure everything out all at once and for all time. We can progress by taking one step, then another. As I once heard it said, “life is a workshop, not an art gallery.”