Songwriting Your Life

I recently attended a concert of a singer/song writer. She and her opening act live far away and perform in my community only once per year. I was excited to be getting a two-fer.

Then the concert began.

It was the saddest two hours of music I’ve ever experienced.

The opening act sang only on one subject: how miserable he was now that his partner left him. Song after song about his empty house, his empty bed, his empty life…

Then the star of the evening took the stage. Her repertoire was far more varied than her opening act but equally somber. She sang about never having been in love, how every relationship ends terribly, how her friend’s divorce was long overdue, and the man who stalked her for three years.

Both musicians seemed trapped in unhappy pasts, unable to move forward. Their attention felt laser focused on their self-perceived failures, disappointments, and feeling unloved and unlovable.

And what we focus on grows.    

They were stuck in their muck. (Sounds like a bad song lyric!)

Moving on in life requires us to work our way through the muck to reach the other side. It can be hard, but the reward is freedom to create life in a new way.

We can write and rewrite our own songs.

Is it time for you to write new lyrics?