Life’s Like an Hourglass Glued to the Table
During my time in Ithaca life had a vastly different flow then I ever experienced before. One of the things that helped ground me, reminding me that life as I knew it was still in existence, was listening to KFOG’s Acoustic Sunrise on Sunday Mornings. The ritual was the same before graduate school, during my time at Cornell, and now post grad life…Wake up slowly, brew a pot of coffee, stream KFOG on the internet, and slowly be lulled away to relaxation. There is something in the confluence of acoustic guitars and heartfelt lyrics that intoxicates me to no end.
This morning I heard a song by Anna Nalick called 2AM that was so special that I felt a need to write about it.
It’s funny because I know I’ve listened to the song before, but for whatever reason this morning I *heard* the song for the first time. Brilliant. The line ‘life’s like an hourglass glued to the table’ just struck a chord with me today.
While I was at Cornell I constantly felt as though life was passing me by. The feeling that I was wasting five years of my life, only to have to start at the bottom rung of the academic ladder at the end of the draining process was an inescapable thought. I fought the feeling with all my heart and soul, but I never defeated the evil ghost. I guess the thought of being middle-aged before seeing tangible results for all the hard work necessary was more of a concern then I would allow myself to admit.
You only get one chance at life…life’s like an hourglass glued to the table…yeah…sing to me Anna…sing it…thank you.
“Breathe (2 AM)” Lyrics
2 AM and she calls me ’cause I’m still awake,
“Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?,
I don’t love him. Winter just wasn’t my season”
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize,
Hypocrites. You’re all here for the very same reason
‘Cause you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe… just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe
In May he turn 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
“Just a Day”, he said down to the flask in his fist,
“Ain’t been sober, since maybe October of last year.”
Here in town you can tell he’s been down for a while,
But, my God, it’s so beautiful when the boy smiles,
Wanna hold him. Maybe I’ll just sing about it.
Cause you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable,
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button, boys,
So cradle your head in your hands,
And breathe… just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe
There’s a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout ’cause you’re just as far in as you’ll ever be out
And these mistakes you’ve made, you’ll just make them again
If you only try turning around.
2 AM and I’m still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it’s no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I’m naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you’ll use them, however you want to
But you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable,
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
and breathe, just breathe
woah breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe.
on March 20th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
Awwwwwwww
on March 20th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
Dude, I tried to leave a comment on your blog and I was locked out….I ended up leaving the comment ‘nice pictures’. wassup?
on March 22nd, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Is that still a problem? Can you try leaving a comment now? I had some trouble earlier, but it should be working now.
on March 22nd, 2005 at 11:16 pm
Is it working now? Can you try commenting?
on April 6th, 2005 at 11:56 am
Weird…I’ve liked this song since the first time I heard it, but, this morning, on the way to work, I heard that same line for the first time (”Life’s like an hourglass glued to the table)….and, it stuck. I can’t remember any song, EVER, having such an impact on me….wow.
gg.
on April 12th, 2005 at 4:30 pm
you don’t know me; i just came across this entry because i heard that same line on the radio today, googled it, and your blog came up. that line has stuck with me too.
on April 29th, 2005 at 6:45 am
Me too. The march is inexorable, isn’t it?
on May 16th, 2005 at 9:05 am
me googled too.. nice song.. I’ve never read your blogs but cheer up dude… go for a long fast drive at 200KMPH on a express bridge.. that always works for me when I’m in one of those moods
on May 27th, 2005 at 8:36 am
Yeah, you don’t know me either but I also heard that song on the radio this morning and noticed that same line. It like many other things has me feeling I should be doing more with life, but I’m not sure what.
on June 10th, 2005 at 9:29 am
I feel the same way — I listen to this song (which I first heard from a Paste Magazine CD BTW) and it almost makes me cry. I immediately want to quit my job, break up with my GF and do SOMETHING. I just wish I knew what it was…i guess Breath.
on June 17th, 2005 at 4:35 pm
i found it on google too. I love this song. (I’m listening to it right now) It makes you want to do everything you’re afraid to do, talk to everyone you’ve wanted to talk to if only you had the courage. Which I don’t. That’s why I love this song!
on June 18th, 2005 at 11:36 pm
I can’t believe I wrote about this song three months ago. I’m glad there are soo many others out there that feel equally passionate about this song.
on June 21st, 2005 at 8:08 pm
this is crazy…there is real power at work here
on June 22nd, 2005 at 3:08 pm
Hi, i googled it to find the name of the song/artist, not that you know me or anything but I just wanted to say that they’res something about this song that really makes you think…i’m graduating tomorrow and all of a sudden i heard this song in the car and wanted to cry, its stuck with me all day
nice entry it was a wonderful way of wording it
on June 28th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
same here. i’m just out of graduate school myself and am trying to readjust to the world, speeding towards middle age, after being in a vacuum for so many years. it’s nice to know that other people are feeling the same way…
on July 29th, 2005 at 11:38 am
I’m glad you all like it. Thank you so much for your support
on July 30th, 2005 at 7:43 am
Same here- I was listening to it on the radio the other day. I must’ve heard it like a thousand times, but that line stuck out. But the one that really gets me is “But my God, it’s so beautiful when the boy smiles.”
on August 16th, 2005 at 10:42 am
I heard this song on the radio a few days ago, the whole thing stuck and i couldnt get it out of my head. so i googled it and found this blog. the song really got to me because i have had a really hard summer..its hard to go into a something expecting it to be all cliche and perfect only for it to come crashing down and you lose who you thought was close to you..its just been confusing..and my rambling isnt making much sense, i know i will get through this rough time, i just wanted to say thanks anna for this song, it helps. ***Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize,
Hypocrites. You’re all here for the very same reason***
on August 18th, 2005 at 9:49 am
I too found this on Google while searching for the lyrics. I’ve got to be honest, I’ve heard the song on the radio several times and always changed the station. Then Friday when I got in my car and turned on the radio, I heard…….” There’s a light at each end of this tunnel, you shout ‘Cause you’re just as far in as you’ll ever be out These mistakes you’ve made, you’ll just make them again If you only try turning around.” I was hooked. I went crazy though cause I wanted to hear the beginning of the song that I had missed and the words. I lost my cousin to cancer last summer who was like a brother to me, I guess I’ve been caught up in a slump since. Saturday, my family attended a benefit that some of his friends are going to hold yearly with the porceeds going to his little girl he left behind who is 4 years old. While at the benefit, this song played and I got to hear it in its entirety and I just breathed. You all know what I mean. Thanks so much, Anna God Bless, Leeann
on August 20th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
It had me sitting in the car until the track ended. I don’t have any special reason to resonate with the lyrics, though I am often writing at 02:00. I love the vulnerability in that verse. “I know that you’ll use them, however you want to” reminds me of Chuck Palahniuk writing about Brad Pitt thanking him for Fight Club. I know it’s strange to have people so appreciative of something you did years ago and meant as something else.
on August 24th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
seems like google is pretty popular… The song is pretty intense… I’m starting my senior year, and I keep thinking “wow… its almost over… and everything else is going to begin…” its kinda scary… rock on y’all
Chris
NC/USA
on August 27th, 2005 at 8:13 am
I googled it, too.
That line really shook me. I’ve been agonizing over my girlfriend ‘taking time to think’ the past two weeks about us. But life’s too short, and there’s nothing i can do about it.
This song is both sad and uplifting. Crazy.
on August 28th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
I got here through google as well. I remember the first time i heard this song i cried for…wella bout 2 and a half minutes till the song was over. this is one of those songs that i listen to and then think “i wish i was the source fo this and not on the reciveing end’ because the words are so naked and honest…i wish i could be that way. but it makes me realize that being a reciever of that kind of wonder is the beginning of being the source. i hope a lot more people find this page. nice little gathering
on August 29th, 2005 at 5:56 pm
after listening to this song..i mean really listening to this song a few more times i paid more attention to the lines ‘no one can find the rewind button now, sing it if you understand..’ because that is precisely what i was looking for.. i wanted to go back and do so many things differently that had gone wrong over the summer because it has cost me a few of my friends and so on.. it was a tough summer and im not going to even begin to explain everything that went on but.. after i realized i couldnt take it back i moved on.. and i prayed again, which i hadnt done in a while, and my prayer was answered..so what i am trying to say is.. dont give up completely.. even when you are at your lowest point yet.. like i was.. haha and im only a sophmore in highschool : )
on October 1st, 2005 at 10:19 pm
I just really like that song, and the lyrics are so much more than any other song in recent memory. It sure seems as if she was really putting exactly what was in her heart and in her head into those lyrics.
on October 3rd, 2005 at 8:35 pm
Googled too. I think everbody here has really summed it all up… Good song…
on October 12th, 2005 at 11:33 am
I love this song, I’ve been listening to it since March. I just decided to google “life’s like an hourglass glued to the table,” because it’s my favourite line in the song and I wondered what other’s had to say about it. That song is just filled with so many perfect, artistic and deep lyrics. I probably haven’t heard a song that is so honest, emotional, and vulnerable, in my life. Each time I hear the “hourglass” line I wish that I was the one who had written it.
on November 2nd, 2005 at 6:15 pm
Yup. Googled the title of this blog too. And like most in here, I HEARD the song for the first time today, tho ive heard it several times before. The line really stuck me…and since then ive been imagining an hourglass draining sand for the entire day. The inerrancy of that line is just crazy. Theres no turning over the hourglass y’all….when the last grain of our life’s sand filters through, thats it. We can only hope that people, and God will appreciate the contents at the bottom when all is said and done.
on November 10th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
Just thought you all might want to know that this song goes beyond any one “generation”. On a delightful 2 hour drive on the interstate coming home today, I too heard this song for the first time, and of course, had no idea who was singing it (should I have?), so I listened for some really unique lyric in it, figuring I could find out who did the song by googling the unique lyric (glued to the table) and I’m glad I did because I missed the singer’s name when the DJ gave the playlist 6 songs afterwards. Wanted you to know that what grips you about this song about life slipping by, and how perfectly the Hourglass image fits “life”, is ageless — it resonates with any age. It’s easy to tell that you all are MUCH younger than I am, but the response to the song is the same. I’m 52, and though I feel I’m not “old” yet, and of course “younger” than others “my age”, I know there really ARE things I’ll never experience again in my life. So I’m glad I did some of the things I did when I did them — even if I couldn’t keep doing them — it was better than never doing them and wishing I had. I/you will always have the memories (or most of them!). So yes, take some (safe-ish) chances and risks in your life when you can, even if it’s scary. You may not get another chance, cause those grains of sand will have already passed through the hourglass before you know you missed it…
on December 4th, 2005 at 8:31 am
Just found this site while looking for the artist… what a beautiful song.
on January 19th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Sometimes you think the lyrics should have been “there’s a lie at each end of this tunnel” but then you think of how far you’ve come since your worst days and your friends tell you that you look good out there and you remember to “breath, just breath.”
(posted one day after the 18′th)
on February 14th, 2006 at 6:10 am
This song really hit a chord with me the other day as well. I was watching the movie “A lot like love” and I heard this song at a phase in the movie where the lyrics had its full impact.
I myself am in a very difficult marriage, with an 8 month old child, and a wife who no longer loves me… But as the song says, we cant jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable… I feel if I “jump the track” I am making a horrible mistake, and if I dont then I am like a glued hourglass, wasting every minute of my life with a marriage that is no longer working…. at all….
Im so lost
on February 15th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
cheer up… marriage can be so hard. I know. At least half the population has been there. Divorce, if that’s where you’re heading isn’t really “jumping the track”. You’ll always be connected (loathe it or not) because of your beautiful child.
remember….
“There’s a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout ‘cause you’re just as far in as you’ll ever be out
And these mistakes you’ve made, you’ll just make them again
If you only try turning around.
…..and breathe, just breathe”
on April 12th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
This song seems to me so much about how it feels to grow up, especially in a country that is exiting its own adolesence.
We spend so much time in America feeling the masters of our destiny when in fact so much is beyond our individual control.
We make choices from invisible menus.
Half full glasses look half empty when we’re just too thirsty.
So the bad news is we aren’t in total control.
Good news (light at the end of tunnel) is we aren’t in total conrol.
Breath and smile and you’ve survived another moment.
on April 12th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
p.s. thank you for the lyrics…googled for them and found your detour. woops, didn’t spell check my prior post.
on April 18th, 2006 at 9:57 am
my mom sent me a text message with that line in it asking for the artist. i googled it, this is what i got. thanks
on April 18th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Just found out that a friend passed away and remembered listening to this song in the car earlier today. The hourglass glued to a table comparison to one’s life is so very true. Like someone said above . . . the song is actually pretty uplifting if you look at whay you have in front of you. Always look at the upside!
on June 3rd, 2006 at 5:48 pm
I googled the lyrics”life’s like an hourglass glued to the table” tonight to find the name of the song, and I came upon your blog. More then the lyrics catching my attention was “Ithaca” and “Cornell”. I am from Canada and my father actaully studied at Cornell. I am working in Syracuse for a couple years and possibly moving to Ithaca in a couple months. It is pretty random to find both the lyrics and Cornell on the same page.
on June 14th, 2006 at 7:43 am
I googled it also and am happy I get to leave my impression on this blog.
All I can honestly say is WOW! With descriptive words like honest and naked as well as phrases like, once the sands of your life run through the hourglass of your time left here on this Earth, that’s it. I’m left with some very emotional and powerful feelings. Anna nailed it exactly for many people! I’m sure many of us would like to hit our own rewind button.
on July 17th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
omg i love this song i never heard it till it was on greys anatomy but it is so awsome such a powerfull son
on July 17th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
i heard this ssong on mi fav tv program greys anatomy ever since have loved it it is a beatiful song and i love it!!!!
on August 21st, 2006 at 6:23 am
Its an awesome song. Im the same as alot of people are who have left replies!
I googled part of the lyrics trying to find the song and found my way here! I just heard it for the first time today and thought I have to find the words for that song.
It really struck a cord with me, it just seemed to really sum up how I was feeling about life and how it seems to be passing me by and yet at the same time its uplifting.
It does make you just want to do something with life, you only get one shot at it so it might as well be worthwhile!
on October 7th, 2006 at 7:40 am
WOW i love this song i googled it to
on December 5th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
man ,i heard this song a few times and it was just a song,thenone day it came on,during a really nasty day of my life,and it hit.im 33(or was)and it came to me,that alot of the decisions ive made withmy life so far,have wasted a chunk of life that i wont ever get back,crazy good tune…………..
on January 14th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Today my husband moved out of our marital home and took EVERYTHING. I’m so distraught. He has a new girlfriend and they bought a house up the street from our home. I have two children ages 4 and 8 and I’m only 28. I’ve heard this song about a million times, but I really heard it tonight. Wasted. I wasted 11 years on this man.
on March 24th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Does anybody know what song this lyric goes to?
its my pleasure to love you for better or worse cause you are
on April 9th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Hi. I was just listening to that song too , right here on my laptop in Uris Hall auditorium, if you even remember what that is at all =)I just thought it was a coincidence that we both go/ went to Cornell and wanted to google that exact same line. yep. =D okay back to class
on May 4th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I’m from germany, i also googled this page, and i love this song, it’s so true. i heard this song the first time on “Grey’s Anatomy” (in america on ABC)
keep breathing
on May 27th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
First off… holy Crap.. Anna Nalick Responded [see above, july 29 2005]
Secondly, I’m a Georgia Tech Expulsion trying to get readmitted. I’ve been hearing this song a lot, or at least it’s the one that sticks when I’m driving from my parent’s house (which sucks ass) to my parents’ clinic where I work (which sucks ass even more)… and it really does speak to me. There is nothing you can do about the past… than move past it and live a good life as if it didn’t affect you.
thank you anna
on May 28th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Jose,
I wrote this post before the song made the top 40 and was a bit surprised when Anna posted a comment. It was cool. Good lucj at school.
on July 13th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
this song is absolutely amazing. we are hurtled sometimes through life at a sickening pace…sometimes it can be too much. its encouraging to know that we arent in total control. sometimes it takes hard situations to remind us just how powerless we are. the sense of…sweet reminiscence…this song stirs in me as, im sure, as well in others should cause us to proceed all the more carefully (to the best of our ability). we need to take opportunities as they come, but sometimes its that brash attitude that causes those grains of sand that slip away from us. i dunno, for me, i tend to think of life not as an hourglass with every precious grain slipping from our hands, but rather, as a huge tapestry. sometimes hard things are sewn in for good and sometimes its good things. thats just my own humble and rambling opinion at this late hour. thanks anna
on August 5th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I heard this song for the first time last week. It grabbed me! I googled the lyrics and then downloaded the song myself. We all need to breath .. just breath. Thanks Anna!
on August 19th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
omg i love love love this song but never knew the name (i always thought it was ‘breathe’ but i didn’t know the 2am part! thank you!
on September 4th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I love this song
Lifes like an hourglass glued to the table says it all to me you cannot turn it back and every day that you live should be lived to be happy it is to short.
on June 21st, 2008 at 5:37 am
Omg, I felt the same way. I heard just this morning, and the other day I’d been keeping an eye out for quotes that I wanted, and then I heard that line!
And then her last chorus! I can totally hook to that because my poems are the same thing for me, and her song is pretty much a poem.
on July 19th, 2008 at 7:57 am
I guess “BeenThere” who wrote they were 52 in 2005 is 55 now, so at 53 this year I’m not the most mature person commenting. I don’t listen to much music on the radio these days, usually tuned to NPR, so I heard this song for the first time today because my wife was watching some “Lifetime” movie called “Phoenix and Griffin,” and it’s sung in the movie. I heard the phrase “hourglass glued to the table” and googled it like everyone else. In my case, I was hoping I’d heard it wrong and could use it myself, but no such luck. It’s a great image, and even more powerful for people like me who are probably closer to the end of life than the beginning. I’m glad someone posted the complete lyrics, the title, and the songwriter’s name. I don’t buy many CDs any more either, but I’m putting this one on my list.
on September 7th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I found your blog about a year or two ago when I was trying to find out who sang this song. I had dropped out in the middle of my senior year after being diagnosed with cancer and was kicked out of my military commissioning program because of my diagnosis. Now, I have graduated and commissioned and am going through my training at Fort Knox - I feel like I am again “locked in”, finishing my training and then heading to a deployment in Iraq.
“There’s a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout ’cause you’re just as far in as you’ll ever be out”
Your words ring as true as Anna’s. I just have to remember why I signed up for the early mornings, late nights, time spent away from family, etc…
on September 12th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
deffinately the best song I’ve listened to in years,I’ve known it for a while and whenever i listen to it that sentence keeps repeating in my head and it’s soo true..it’s the only song i can listen to over and over and never get tired of it
on March 21st, 2009 at 5:09 pm
yep..i too googled the lyrics after hearing the line on greys. This blog was written in 2005…and is still getting comments now in 2009…WOW! If i am able to make a statement so real as Anna Nalik has done in this song…well i’ll consider my hourglass well used.
on October 7th, 2009 at 9:26 am
why is it this one line that got stuck in our heads?…
on November 12th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Unravelling mistakes . . . can’t undo them, but you can begin to live from the inside out. Once you find your spiritual center, you realize there are no mistakes, and you can experience healing. Then, those people in your life . . .that you hurt, that hurt you . . . they all matter. Each one. Because we’re all ultimately united in this life. You can heal each rift you’ve ever experienced on that level.