This song idea arrived at a very particular, most unusual time.
A shared time.
Later on, the song's meaning evolved in the most unexpected of ways.
The Song Seed
A friend and I had been tossing phrases back and forth at the start of the pandemic, trying to make sense of the unsettled chaos.
"Time is so weird. The constantly shifting everything is like we're in a giant slow motion earthquake." I had texted.
"A slow motion earthquake: YES. Exactly!" My friend replied.
It was the closest I came to capturing the strange, overwhelming moment. I knew this would become a song when the time was right.
Evolving: Global to Personal to Woah
One year later, I wrote the song.
As the verses developed, I realized I was speaking both to someone else and to myself. "My love...take a rest..."
As I kept writing, I felt a little less lost and a little more powerful.
I shared it in our songwriter's group gathering. It met deep relatable sighs of knowing and we leaned into the dissonant harmonies. YES.
A year after that, in the midst of recording with Matt in Vermont,
I had to hit pause. For a couple years.
I experienced my own personal slow motion earthquake.
When I finally listened back to our rough mix of this song,
it stopped me in my tracks.
Suddenly, it all felt extremely present and personal. Beautifully, eerily so.
I sang along...somehow I was singing to myself with a new tenderness about an entirely new experience.
My past self was singing to my future self.
As if she knew what I had just been through.
(She couldn't have known.)
Art is extraordinary.
Gift of Reassurance: From me AND from you (to you)
This song is yours now.
You may want to send it to a friend going through a hard thing.
You may want to hear a loved one sing it to you.
Or you may want to sing it to yourself.
You might discover it means something new ten years down the line.
Wherever it travels, I hope it carries the same message:
I see your innate strength, even when you don't.
Take your time, but keep going.
You've got what it takes.
I've got your back.
YOU'VE got YOUR back.