This morning I woke up with a song in my head, and it’s a good one. It’s the one I blast in my car on the way to Poetry Slam. It’s the one I sing along to and throw little girl-power dance parties to in the parking lot outside the pizza place where the Slam is held once a month. My fellow poet ladies and I sing and dance and stomp and grind our hips and work ourselves up to go in there and put the rock-god guy poets in the dust. This is friendly competition at its best. I’ve got one more week until the April Slam and I’m already in the mood to dominate and bring home a prize!
My Poet-Warrior work up the nerve song? Brave, by Sara Bareilles!
Bean just snuck into my bed for a morning snuggle before it’s actually time to get up – here in the few minutes before work that I reserve for me and writing. But he put on one earbud, and I put on the other and we rocked out to this song, and watched the wonderful, hilarious dancing, and smiled and laughed, and I got tears in my eyes for how lovely, encouraging this song is, and what a wonderful message the video gives – to dance and speak and sing whether you have the moves the world says are beautiful or not. I love professional dancers, but I also love dancers who embody joy with their every single step and sway.
In case you can’t watch video – please enjoy the heart behind these lyrics and understand why I adore the phrase, “Let the words fall out.”
“Brave”
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug
You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love
Or you can start speaking upNothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do
When they settle ‘neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes a shadow wins
But I wonder what would happen if youSay what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be braveI just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
Everybody’s been there,
Everybody’s been stared down by the enemy
Fallen for the fear
And done some disappearing,
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, just stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
And since your history of silence
Won’t do you any good,
Did you think it would?
Let your words be anything but empty
Why don’t you tell them the truth?
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
See you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
What a wonderful age we live in, when we can have instant access to whatever music our souls need in the moment!
A quick peek at my Pandora station list will show you that music speaks to me in every mood. I have blasted Belly-dance Drum music when I have a giant pile of laundry to fold and I figure I might as well do some very interesting core moves while I’m at it and get a silly workout at the same time. We have rocked out to Irish Pub Music for St. Patrick’s Day. We will often pipe along to the Rat Pack, or the station These Boots are Made for Walking. I’ve got Mozart, August Rush radio and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy radio for when we are in a giant SKA band mood.
What is the music that fills your home to bring moods soaring into something better than squawky or whiney or pestering one another? What do you blast to rock the house and power up?
photo from here
