Time & Perspective Quote by Della Reese

Della Reese’s line lands like a pep talk with teeth: it’s urgency dressed up as plain speech. The list-making - “want, need or desire or just like to have” - deliberately collapses the hierarchy of our cravings. She doesn’t moralize about which longing is worthy. She recognizes how people actually move through life: pulled by necessity, appetite, curiosity, and the small private things we’re embarrassed to admit matter. That openness is part of why it hits; it offers permission before it demands action.

The phrase “you better try” is doing more work than it seems. It’s not a fantasy of guaranteed success; it’s a wager on effort while the window is still open. Reese isn’t selling hustle culture’s tidy narrative that you can manifest anything. She’s insisting on the only leverage any of us truly have: timing, attention, and the willingness to step toward what we keep postponing.

Then comes the pivot: “this is the only time there is.” It’s a spiritual sentence disguised as a practical one, echoing both performance wisdom (the moment is live; you miss it, it’s gone) and a hard-earned maturity about mortality. Coming from a musician who lived through multiple eras of American entertainment - and later became a comforting TV presence - the subtext feels lived-in: the future is a story we tell to delay the present. Reese cuts that story off mid-sentence.