Writing New Pages In The Book Of Your Life

At the recent Texas Counseling Association conference, in my presentation evaluation form , I asked attendees to share positive uplifting songs. My purpose, I told them was to pool among them a variety of positive songs that I could then email them for use with their clients and their own personal lives. As you know, I believe that music has power as a medium. A power for good or bad. My emphasis is to accentuate the positive music. They offered a wide variety of songs from various artists and styles of music. One that caught my attention is “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield.

I wasn’t aware of her as an artist and thought I had never heard the song. Once I listened to it on Youtube, I realized I had heard it but never paid attention to the message. As usual take a few minutes to listen to the song by clicking on the song title. I came across an extremely creative video that touches on the message of the song.

"Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield (click on the title to hear the song)

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned
Staring at the blank page before you, Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance , So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions, Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you, Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else, Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken, Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins,
The rest is still unwritten
I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way
Staring at the blank page before you, Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance, So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions, Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you, Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else, Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken, Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

Feel the rain on your skin, No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in, No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips, Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open, Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
Staring at the blank page before you, Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance, So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions, Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you, Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else, Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken, Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
Feel the rain on your skin, No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in, No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips, Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open, Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten, The rest is still unwritten, The rest is still unwritten

The first thought that hit me is that each new day we face is a blank page in the story of our lives. We may have some outline notes laying around if it is a day where we have something planned. Yet if we are honest much of what happens is unplanned. As we look into the future, years ahead and the end of our story; we do not know exactly what will be. We often find ourselves thinking of the future as the line says, “Reaching for something in the distance”. So we are constantly creating new pages in our book as we write with the pen of our daily living.

The song makes me think of Dr. John Krumboltz’s happenstance theory that speaks to the point that we need to be open to what life brings to us. The phrase “Live your life with arms wide open” points for me to be open to the possibilities that God brings my way. We need to be active in our lives as well, as Natasha reminds us to “Feel the rain on our skin”. We need to be involved actively in life as no one else can live life for us. Be open to trying new things which in turn can open up more possibilities. Thinking of the creativity of the video we see a book that was not satisfied to stay on the shelf but climbs to venture outside. I am very much of a traditionalist admittedly. The song though made me wonder can we become stuck behind dirty windows and settle that a drab ok life as this is all there is? Maybe it is better to open up and “Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find”. Move into the sunshine and try new experiences for new pages of our book.

The word, “drenching” to me is to allow full absorption in the new happenstance events, because that helps in the new creation of each day. This allows for full understanding so I can then “speak the words” on my lips to continue to write new portions of the narrative of my life story. Then as I close off a day I can sleep with anticipation for the next new page in my book the next day “The rest is still unwritten, The rest is still unwritten, The rest is still unwritten”.

Reflection: At the end of the day do you look forward to new opportunities in your next day as a blank page in the story of your life? As we near the end of this year look back at your life story for this year. What have been highlights in your story?