Thanks for the reminder Bruce

The other night I was driving home from an awesome 20's group around 10:30pm. It was a beautiful night, the first drive of the new season when I could roll down the windows and crank the music. Exactly what I did. Wanted to just listen to some of my all time favorite songs, so I jammed to some Pumpkins and other randoms, but eventually rolled the Zune over to The Boss. Couldn't get Badlands any louder, or Thunder Road. But the one song, my favorite all-time Bruce track, "Better Days," really hit me in a deeper way than just jamming on the way home:

Well my soul checked out missing as I sat listening
To the hours and minutes tickin' away
Yeah, just sittin' around waitin' for my life to begin
While it was all just slippin' away.
I'm tired of waitin' for tomorrow to come
Or that train to come roarin' round the bend.
I got a new suit of clothes a pretty red rose
And a woman I can call my friend

These are better days baby
Yeah there's better days shining through
These are better days baby
Better days with a girl like you

Well I took a piss at fortunes sweet kiss
Its like eatin' caviar and dirt
Its a sad funny ending to find yourself pretending
A rich man in a poor mans shirt
Now my ass was draggin' when from a passin' gypsy wagon
Your heart like a diamond shone
Tonight I'm layin' in your arms carvin' lucky charms
Out of these heard luck bones

Now a life of leisure and a pirates treasure
Don't make much for tragedy
But its a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin
And cant stand the company
Every fools got a reason to feelin' sorry for himself
And turn his heart to stone
Tonight this fools halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell
And I feel like I'm comin' home

These are better days baby
There's better days shining through
These are better days
Better days with a girl like you

My wife, my daughter, my family, my friends, my church - I really don't have anything to complain about in my life. And even if I did, I feel like I have clearer, healthier outlook at present. "These are better days" is the epitome of how I feel about life right now.

I came into 2009 praying for a renewed sense of joy and purpose in my life. Though I've heard it 100x's or more already, the way the lyrics of this song really hit me emotionally was a proof to me that I'm gaining that joy, deeply.

The first line is a good word to where I was a year, year-and-a-half ago: "my soul checked out."

But the last line of the bridge is where I am today: "Tonight this fools halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell, and I feel like I'm comin' home."

Yep...these are better days. Better days it's true.