Turn around…
Posted by charlottescott on May 17, 2011
Once many years ago my mother was picking me up from high school, I stepped into the car and she was crying. There was a song on the radio…
Where are you going? My little one, Little one,
Where are you going? My baby, My own.
TURN AROUND, and you’re two,
TURN AROUND, And you’re four
TURN AROUND, and you’re a young girl, going out of the door.
TURN AROUND, TURN AROUND,
TURN AROUND and you’re a young girl going out of the door….
I didn’t completely understand why she was crying. What I did know.. I was 15 and pregnant. She had cried a lot lately. I’ve never forgotten that moment, but it had been tucked away, not considered in awhile.
Today I discovered a card my daughter had pulled out of the glove compartment of the car I had just passed down to her. I’d had it for years. It was a birthday card my mother had given me probably 5 years earlier.
The card on the front said simply…
to my daughter.
The words on the inside…..
Sometimes I look at you and wonder,
where did my little girl go,
and who’s this wonderful
woman who looks so much like her?
That day in the car, as she sat waiting to pick me up, listening to the radio and feeling time slip away… came flying back to me and I understood. My daughter is stepping out into life, happily not 15 and pregnant, but there she goes…just the same. Her life has passed by me with a speed I cannot explain.
My mother passed away in September this year. I feel the regret of times lost. Of things unspoken and love not shared. I think about the years that my mother watched me grow, leave, strife with life and motherhood and even grandmother-hood. It seems as if those years went by so fast. I understand now how she must have felt as the years were fleeing by and that little girl was never quite lost in her eyes, nor in her heart. I feel the slipping away of time as my children find their way through life.I look at them as adults but in my hearts eyes…those tiny beings that brought me so much joy and laughter look back at me.
I took the card as a message from my mother…slow down. Don’t rush through it all. It flies by so fast. Cherish the moments, hug the days, absorb the nights and enjoy it all! My mom and I didn’t spend much time together over the last two decades of her life. That must have made it even more fleeting for her.
The other day my 9 year old granddaughter said to me…”Grandma, I wouldn’t grow so fast if you saw me more often.” Wise words, Emmie, and I took them to heart..I made myself a promise to see her and her brothers much more often. It was slipping away much too fast.
Life flies by. Everything is so busy, so fast. We are rushing towards the future with every breath we take. Today, thanks to that little message from my mother I am slowing down…just a bit. Today is what is on our plates. I plan to make it a buffet with lots of treats and plenty of dessert!
Here is the entire song…just in case you find life fleeing by you today.
Where are you going? My little one, Little one,
Where are you going? My baby, My own.
TURN AROUND, and you’re two,
TURN AROUND, And you’re four
TURN AROUND, and you’re a young girl, going out of the door.
TURN AROUND, TURN AROUND,
TURN AROUND and you’re a young girl going out of the door.
Where are you going? My little one, Little one,
Little dirndels and petticoats, Where have you gone?
TURN AROUND, and you’re tiny,
TURN AROUND, And you’re grown
TURN AROUND, and you’re a young wife, with babes of your own.
TURN AROUND, TURN AROUND,
TURN AROUND and you’re a young wife, with babes of your own.
Where are you going? My babe, My own.
Where are you going? My precious one, Precious one,
Pigtails and bedtime stories, Memories of old.
TURN AROUND, and you’re tiny,
TURN AROUND, And you’re grown
TURN AROUND, and you’re a woman going out on your own.
TURN AROUND, TURN AROUND,
TURN AROUND and you’re a woman going out on your own.
Ian MacLaughlan 1963, David Silver lyricist.
