Meaning

In a 2016 Songfacts interview with Paula Cole, she talked about the meaning behind "I Don't Want To Wait."

"It's a very personal song that's looking at my grandparents, specifically my grandfather, Everett, who fought in World War II, his unhappy marriage to my grandmother - the firecracker, Helen - their influence on my father and then that influence on me.

When you grow up with your grandparents you can really see the generations and the energy of the parenting. I was looking at it and thinking, 'I don't want to make some of these mistakes. I really hope I don't.' Wanting to take that Atlas globe off of my shoulders that felt like each female generation was passing, like you have to just stay married, you can't be happy, you can't have a career. I just wanted to shrug it off and I wanted happiness for my life, my generation.

Of course, I go about making all kinds of different mistakes in reaction to that and ironically I come back to my hometown and full circle of living by my parents now, with my daughter. So, that song follows me. It's a song from my life. I think about my family in it, I think about generations, the way they've informed my dad and me, but really I wrote it for my grandfather and I feel like his spirit is still in that song. The song has wings - the spirit is in that song."

Lyrics

So open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I
You know that if we are to stay alive
And see the peace in every eye

She had two babies
One was six months one was three
In the war of '44
Every telephone ring
Every heartbeat stinging
When thought it was God calling her
Oh would her son grow to know his father

I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
I want to know right now
What will it be
I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
Will it be yes or will it be... sorry

He showed up all wet
On the rainy front step
Wearing shrapnel in his skin
And the war he saw
Lives inside him still
It's so hard to be gentle and warm
The years passed by and now
He has granddaughters

I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
I want to know right now
What will it be

I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
Will it be yes or will it be

Oh, so breathe a little more deeply my love
All we have is this very moment
And I don't want to do what
His father and his father and his father did
I want to be here now

So open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I
You know that if we are to stay alive
And see the peace in every eye

I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
I want to know right now
What will it be
I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
Will it be yes or will it be

I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
I want to know right now
What will it be
I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
Will it be yes or will it be
Sorry

So open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I
You know that if we are to stay alive
And see the love in every eye
Play with the song, fill the gaps
Legend
  • The video player plays from the time specified
  • Chorus
  • People Talking

Vocabulary

Show Up

informal (arrive, be present)
If a guy who you know likes you and he shows up to your work does that mean he likes you more than you think?
My ex showed up at my house

Shrapnel

fragments of exploded shell
The ones that didn't burn... were covered in blades of metal embedded in their skin... shrapnel from head to toe