What Vienna by Billy Joel Taught Me
You Are Not Behind. You Never Were.
A Moment to Listen
🎵 Vienna
Billy Joel
Before you press play...
Give yourself a few quiet minutes.
Listen without rushing.
Listen without trying to figure anything out.
Just... listen.
Sometimes recognition is waiting in words you've heard a hundred times.
Reflect
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from living as though you are already behind.
Behind where you should be. Behind who you thought you would become by now. Behind the version of your life you designed on a vision board in 2019 that is still judging you from the closet.
Most of us picked up that feeling so gradually we cannot remember a time without it.
Somewhere along the way someone handed us a schedule.
Graduate. Build. Achieve. Arrive. Become.
We accepted it without reading the fine print.
We did not ask who wrote it.
We did not ask if it was meant for us.
We just... started running.
And we have been remarkably committed to that decision ever since.
We optimize. We compare. We create five year plans for lives we have not decided if we actually want. We calculate how far behind we are and then immediately make a spreadsheet about it.
I admire the efficiency. Truly.
Slow down, you crazy child.
I have heard this song more times than I can count. And that line finds me differently every time.
Not as criticism.
As relief.
Because the truth is — life was never a race. There is no finish line. There is no panel of judges reviewing your timeline and deducting points for the detours.
There is just your life. Unfolding exactly as it is. Right now. In this moment.
The schedule was never real.
The deadline was never assigned.
And the woman you thought you were supposed to be by now?
She was always just a guess.
Life has never been late.
Neither are you.
💭 Recognize
This isn't about finding the right answer.
It isn't about learning something new.
It isn't about creating a better version of yourself.
It's about noticing what has been true all along.
What did you recognize?