A Thousand Years

by Christina Perry

Malia, my wife and I have quite different tastes when it comes to movies. She's quite the chick flick fan, and for me, the quality of the movie seems too often correlate to how many explosions it has.

But one set of movies we both enjoy together very much is the Twilight series. It obviously passes the check flick test. And the vampireish, pain, do anything for eternal love and life stuff is very emotionally compelling for me, on top of all the rest of it. I particularly love when Bella says:

   "No measure of time with you will be long enough,

   so let's start with forever."

There are many songs from the series I enjoy, including Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years"

I'd love to know what everyone thinks when they hear this song. Here's what goes through my mind, when I listen to this song:

I've been lucky that the first person I've been really close to, which I've lost, is my grandmother Grace. When I was in high school, I would often ride my bike over to her house where she would do things like teach me piano, make me wonderful lunches, and I would help her fix things around the house. Those memories of her are infinitely valuable to me, and I so wish I could go back home and see her again. What a judgmental ass I was back then. I could have done so much more, and gotten so much closer to her than I did, had I only known. She mostly died alone.

Anyway, it seems my heart turns to my infinitely valuable memory of my Grace, when I hear this song.

   Heart beats fast

   Colors and promises

"We cannot see [1]; but when our bodies are purified, we shall see that it is all matter."

"To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse—"

   How to be brave?

   How can I love when I'm afraid to fall

I fear the hell that is rotting in the grave, but not as much as I fear the thought of the living being separated from the dead, even after there are Gods.

   But watching you stand alone?

   All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow

   One step closer

Grandma, if you could do it, I hope I can do it as well as you did. That would be better than the living and the dead necessarily being separated, for eternities. Your life brought me one step closer, I hope I can follow your example, and bring my grandchildren one step closer as well as you did.

   [2]

   I have died everyday waiting for you

   Darling don't be afraid I have loved you

   For a thousand years

   I'll love you for a thousand more

Will it take a thousand years of dieing every day, waiting, to finally get to the first thousand more?

   Time stands still

   Beauty in all she is

   I will be brave

   I will not let anything take away

   What's standing in front of me

   Every breath

   Every hour has come to this

   One step closer

   [3]

   I have died everyday waiting for you

   Darling don't be afraid I have loved you

   For a thousand years

   I'll love you for a thousand more

   And all along I believed I would find you

   Time has brought your heart to me

   I have loved you for a thousand years

   I'll love you for a thousand more

   One step closer

   One step closer

   [4]

   I have died everyday waiting for you

   Darling don't be afraid I have loved you

   For a thousand years

   I'll love you for a thousand more

   And all along I believed I would find you

   Time has brought your heart to me

   I have loved you for a thousand years

   I'll love you for a thousand more

I'll never give up, till I get back home, with you, whether in this life or the next.

Oh, and I love the Piano Guy's version of this song, even more.