I have been listening to songs lately, really listening to songs, all the layers and the sincerity of the messages in their lyrics, the meanings of the words and how they are carefully hung together. I am thinking of my own ways to express the love that seeps from Joni Mitchell liltingly, and bittersweetly professing: “I could drink a case of you and I would still be on my feet.” or the younger, less poetic, unapologetic Avril Lavigne: “I don’t want to fall to pieces, I just want to sit and stare at you. I don’t want a conversation, I just want to cry in front of you” or my favourite illustration of complete, unconditional love from Paul Simon in Graceland: “She comes back to tell me she’s gone, As if I didn’t know that, As if I didn’t know my own bed, As if I’d never noticed, The way she brushed her hair from her forehead.” or My Chemical Romance describing a powerful moment between a father and son: “He said ‘Son, when you grow up will you be the saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned? Will you defeat them; your demons and the non-believers?’” or the honest and scary depiction of an intervention by The Fray: “Let him know that you know best, Cause after all you do know best, Try to slip past his defense… Lay down a list of what is wrong, The things you’ve told him all along, And pray to God he hears you, And pray to God he hears you. Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend.” or the vulnerable and starkly open invitation by Snow Patrol: “If I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world.” I could go on forever, and I will.

Moments like these in songs make me cry, and leave me wondering if I can ever say anything that will be as profound and inspiring as those words, I hope so, and I think so. More and more often I am catching this doubt sooner and instead leaving my heart open. Scary but it feels so good.

I have written 5 new songs (5 new songs!!), as yet unperformed. I will work on them and maybe be brave enough to share some at Open Mic on Wednesday. It happened so easily, I love these bursts of creative energy… I can conquer the world in these moments. I am learning so many new writing exercises and techniques. I guess everyone was right, ‘practice makes perfect’.

Currently listening to: Only Four Seasons, by Joe Purdy