Last weekend I found myself in the car going to pick up a grocery order – alone. Parents, IYKYK.
I’d planned to maximize those 27 minutes by catching up on a podcast at 1.75x. But those plans were hijacked as soon as I turned on the car and found myself two versus into “Adia” with nostalgia begging me to turn it up.
Around here, when 1997 calls, you answer.
I’m equal parts smug and shocked when song lyrics come back to me from rote memory, and apparently I’d heard this one enough to get every little inflection point, too. And yes, I sang belted out (because loudly, and badly) every word.
But what stood out in this sing-along was the lyric that caught my attention, like a new stop sign in a previously YOLO intersection.
“…if you’d only let yourself believe.”
Now, I’m not going to get into the context of these words within the song for two reasons – 1) there’s VH1 for that, and 2) I believe great music is a BYO situation. And I’ma a huge proponent of BYOing when the opportunity presents.
I can’t tell you what song came on after, or what was in my grocery pick-up order. But I can tell you these lyrics – and this invitation – have been on my heart since then because they feel like a call to action.
See, the thing about believing is that it requires us to stand in our own truth and make a conscious choice to pursue what feels aligned and resonant. Which, by the way, isn’t always (ever?) easy, especially when met with resistance.
I believe one of the bravest and most transformative actions we can take is to stand in our truth and assert our beliefs – especially when those beliefs push us to the edges of our comfort zone. Maybe this is why Sarah’s words stood out to me – because growth and change happen at those edges. And recently I’ve found myself ready for change but not quite sure how to affect it.
Until now.