The Rubens are on high rotation on my iPod at the moment and I have to share this song with you.

I’m definitely one of those people who get a song ‘stuck’ in the heads… for ages. I wake up singing it, I go to sleep singing it (try to!), it often appears in my dreams in a certain way and I will bug the living daylights out of everyone around me by constantly singing it. The problem with me is, I never, ever… and I mean EVER get the lyrics right. No matter what I try and do, I can never get any lyrics of any song right. Ever. I’ve tried, yep – i’ve certainly tried, because if there’s one thing i’d like to do it would be to sing. But there’s no hope. I make up words that are so ridiculously not correct that the moment I sing something out loud, people usually fall about laughing at me. (it has occurred to me that it may also be the way i sing, not just what i sing!) But hey – can’t knock me down, i’ll still do it.

So, now that you know that, you’ll appreciate it more that i can actually sing along to this song, hence why it is stuck in my head. But, truth be told, there’s another great reason why I love this song. Just listen to it yourself…

Now, if this song doesn’t evoke willingness to change then I don’t know what does. As with all lyrics, to all songs, you can tweak them and change them to suit your own situation. Imagine yourself in the song. We all do it. It’s nothing like horoscopes, where they are so vague yet well written they make you believe what they read. This is art being used to evoke emotion in all of us. And the lyrics are easy enough for me to sing along to. In the car. I only sing in the car so never fear…

I sent this song to a loved one who has gone through an intense time of his own. The best part about this story is that he’s on the other side of it now. He’s in a place where he can look back, he’s not ‘in’ it anymore. In all honesty, we all go through some kind of intense phase in our lives and inspirational quotes aside, it makes you better for it.

There are people in my life now, who are ‘in’ it. I can see it. I’m not sure they can, which I understand, I’ve been there too. So deep in it you can’t see out. The problem with these situations, when you know someone needs to be pulled out of ‘it’, how do you go about telling them. How do you tell them there’s an easier way? How do you show them that you don’t have to live that way, there’s another way? No amount of music or inspirational stock photographs or Facebook bile can say it. Just honest, truthful words from someone else. It’s a hard thing to say, there are generations of people who will just ignore it and ‘get on with it’ without stopping to think that maybe, there is another way.

This is where the song comes in for me. Yep, i’ve been through some intense phases of life, along with others, and i’m well and truly looking back at it now, and the feeling I have is something that words can’t even do justice. You have to be around me to see it. You have to feel it. And I’m hoping that i’m able to show my loved ones who are in need of a change, that they can do it and they’ll never have to be the same.

Back to the song, i’m afraid the clip i’ve chosen will have to do because there is no official clip for it, and when I You Tubed it some genius has put a series of photographs to the song… i watched it, they were stills from Home and Away. Shit. My heart sunk. I do not condone the use of this song for Home and Away montages… that’s a completely new blog post on the dangers of shitty Australian drama… I wonder how the Rubens feel about this!!??

Down from my high horse, back to reality. If you know someone who is in need of a bit of a wake-up call. Tread delicately. It’s hard enough to say it to the people you love, it’s much harder to hear it. You have to be strong enough on the inside to hear it, accept it and try and make a change. And the thing is, with all the support that we have available to us, it’s still up to them to do the hard work. Every one’s story is different, everyone’s level of pain is only there’s to feel, but remember, that time passes us by – we can always count on time to come by again. So don’t rush things. Take the time that passes you by and use it to make change. Contribute and give back, pass it forward and sing loudly, even if you don’t know the words.

These Days Are My Days And I’m Singing Loud!

Linz x

(if you see me at the Rubens concert, i’ll probably be just ‘mouthing’ the lyrics – a bit like i do with the national anthem at school assemblies… trust me, it’s better for all of us!)