Holocene

“Whats your favorite song?” My cousin asked me tonight. I was listening to the song “Holocene” by Bon Iver when she asked and in that moment it was my favorite.  When she asked why, I said that It calmed me on this extreme level and just set my soul at ease, and at this point I had no clue what the majority of the lyrics were or what they were about even though I have listened to that song on repeat for years! But I loved the instrumentation. Being a songwriter, I am typically drawn to the lyrics of a song. So with my curiosity working I looked it up, and at first glance I was so confused by my first read, the lyrics were so deep that they just seemed almost silly to me. Until I started reading comments on peoples perceptions of the song it all started making sense, to some the song is about needing the world to live and breathe, but if we are not living and breathing the world doesn’t need us for survival, point being we are a part of something so much bigger then what we know.  Reading that it all made sense to me why I felt such a serene comfort when constantly listening to the song on repeat. A message that so many things we worry on don’t actually matter, and to truly appreciate the moments we are given looking beyond what we have in front of us and reminding ourselves that we are a part of something so big, and so beautiful.  I also read a story on the lyric site about a man who went through loss and trauma in Baghdad and during his time there he listened to this song and wept tears of misery and self loathing in his bunker, until one day he realized all the pain that he had created for himself in his life and that in order to move forward he had to change his way of thinking. We all have moments of darkness, some of our moments last longer then others, some can never find the light switch while others make a fire with 2 sticks. We are all given opportunity and chance but it is our choices that lead us down our life roadways.  We are all responsible for our worlds, although we can not control all the events that take place, we are in charge of controlling our emotions, our actions, and our reactions.  I just found his story so beautiful in all the sadness that he explained he found his light in his fight for survival.  I always say there is light that comes from darkness and this was a nice example of that to me.  I love how music can connect people that don’t even know each other and people that will never meet.  Music is a timeless creation that will continuously mark memories, create memories, and be strong reminders of moments that change our life.  Music to me is something bigger then we can see. It is a universal language that unites us all, and reminds us that we all feel, we all have a common root of emotion we just make choices that allow us to experience those feelings in different ways.

I am grateful for this grounding moment of serenity.