pick it out of the clouds

I wish I could say that my current mentality of 'OK, it's time to let go and move on' is entirely down to me, but it's not. Last week was pretty bad, and if you scroll through my posts I talked about it a little, but there are two things that I've been thinking about recently.

I'm a firm believer that a song can, in effect, change your life... Friendships and relationships are formed on the basis that two people like the same musician or band, and lyrics can move you in ways that you never expected. To quote Josh Groban (who is a huge inspiration to me/ridiculously talented), "music is what I always turned to when I was feeling a certain way". I can't play music and my singing skills are questionable, but I understand what he meant. Whether it's listening to music or creating it yourself, it's a powerful thing when you need somewhere to go and something to turn to.




This is the sort of song that I always overhear or catch the end of on the radio, but I never know what it is. I'd heard it, but I'd never listened to it. We hear things all the time, but it doesn't mean we're listening. Similarly, things pass by our eyes but sometimes we don't see them. Because of this, I think we all too often lose sight of the bigger picture. People talk about life passing them by without them really noticing anything, and I think it's very much the same thing - it's not like you're not there, living your life, it's that you've managed to stop paying attention to the things that make it worthwhile without even realising you've done so.

I'm sure I don't need to quote any of the lyrics from this song for you to understand why I find it inspiring and encouraging at the moment, but my favourite line is "we only bleed if we're not seen by another" simply because for me, it's true. To quote my favourite book,

"wear your brightest traits on your sleeve, for all to see, and do your tailoring at home."

And that's OK. It makes sense to do your tailoring at home. It's embarrassing to do your tailoring in public anyway - you can't just fall apart in front of everybody you know in an everyday scenario. The only thing is, sometimes I think you need someone to help you with your tailoring.

Because I have so much spare time at the moment, I've been spending more time at my grandma's house. I was there last Friday doing her dusting while she told me stories. Anybody in our family will know that grandma's house equals storytelling. In fact, one of our biggest 'in-jokes' is that whenever the phrase "when I left school at fourteen and went into the mill..." is spoken, we all know that a story is going to follow.

We talked about a lot last Friday. One of our most common subjects at the moment, amongst a few others, is how similar we can be. My mum has always told me "you take after your grandma" and after a conversation we had recently, I realise now quite how much I do. We both sat and recalled all of the times we were left in charge of something at primary school (and high school/college for me) and it made me realise something that I think I needed to realise.

One of my biggest insecurities has always been the fact that I'm naturally quite capable of being responsible for things and taking on responsibilities that most other people my age have shied away from. I was editor of the school newspaper, I pretty much single-handedly sorted out our entire World Challenge group (and for the past two years have even gone back to my old school on open evenings because it seems they still can't cope without me), I co-organised Children in Need, Red Nose Day, Anti-Bullying Week and World Aids Day fundraising, I ran the Amnesty group and even launched a building at college (that one was just plain weird). As a child, my grandma ran the school library, was responsible for taking money to a bank, generally looked after other kids and, when she started working at 14, was able to get herself into a much higher position than everybody else.

Why is all of this significant? While she was telling me about working her way up to her job, she told me about one other girl who had disliked her because she had a better job than her. My grandma and I haven't exactly been in the same position, but it made me realise that I don't need to be insecure about it, and it's OK to be that sort of person. Somebody important to me once said "you do what you do because you're you" and it's never really been something that I could feel comfortable with. I understand it much more now. People can look at me like I'm weird and find what I do absolutely hilarious all they like, but why should I change something about me that's actually good just because somebody else doesn't feel inclined to do the same? I mean, I met one of my closest friends through the college magazine. Why should I regret doing anything that others don't when it's been so positive for me?

I guess the key to moving on and letting go is accepting things for what they are. Everybody is different and while I might feel comfortable taking on responsibilities, and even enjoy them, others won't. That's fine. We need that balance. If nobody did anything, or if everybody did everything, we'd all be in a huge mess. Being one or the other doesn't make any of us any better than everybody else for it, it just makes us different and mean that our strengths and weaknesses lie in different places. I know for a fact that I've been guilty of forgetting that in the past, and I'm sure I'm not alone in doing so.

I think the song tells us something we all need to remember, "stop looking down at the ground, pick it out of the clouds - no one's gonna put you down". If you do what makes you happy and you do it well, nobody can have any real justification to have an issue with it.

Which songs inspire you or make you feel happy? Let me know in the comments below and we can all share in the happiness :)

Wishing you all a wonderful day,

Rx