My heart is open and the sky’s on fire… “What kind of blog title is that?!” I hear you ask! Allow me to explain… It’s one of my favourite lyrics, indeed from one of my favourite songs, ever. It’s a song called Stars & Lovers from Matt Cardle’s debut album, Letters (a truly underrated and amazing singer-songwriter; please do give the album a listen if you haven’t already), which does a pretty good job of depicting how I feel about life right now. Here’s how some of it goes:
“…If I could have one superpower
It would be to make you understand
(Chorus):
My heart is open and the sky’s on fire
I hear the drum and I hear the choir
The universe it was made for us and
O-oh, the stars and the lovers
A universe made for us and
O-oh, the stars and the lovers
Don’t let go, hold onto each other”
I love the first line of the chorus because sometimes I feel like I have so much feeling about life, the world and the people in it that I literally don’t know what to do with it and think I might implode! There are just so many things to be thankful for, and I think people in general perhaps don’t appreciate them enough.
Firstly, music (“I hear the drum and I hear the choir”). Music is one of the most important things in my life and it has an amazing ability to make me really feel something, whether it be a positive emotion or a painful one. But how amazing that a few simple sounds put together can influence human emotion so much. Even more amazing is the fact that sometimes music can explain how I’m feeling better than I can! In fact that’s why I’ve chosen to base this post around a song, because I didn’t even realise these were things I felt about life until I really listened to these lyrics and let them take shape in a way that’s meaningful to me. Anyway, that’s enough about music, because I’m pretty sure I could write whole post about this sort of thing and this one is already very much at risk of becoming ridiculously long-winded.
Secondly, there are so many beautiful places and so many incredible things to see and do in the world. Admittedly I’m fortunate enough to live in a lovely area and have lots of stunning places right at my fingertips, but there are always things to appreciate; it’s just a case of taking the time to notice them. These pictures were all taken at different places close to where I live within the last few weeks. I hope you’ll agree that it’s impossible not to think the world is amazing when you get to see views like that! “The universe it was made for us”. Yes, it’s almost as though the universe was specifically designed to be full of things for us as people to enjoy! So go on, go out and enjoy them… ;)
“Don’t let go, hold onto each other”. Finally, the most important thing of all: people. I feel so fortunate to have lots of people in my life who I enjoy spending time with, and think almost everyone can think of at least one person they want to hold onto and never let go of. Personally, I can think of a few, whether it be family or friends. Sadly we never know what’s round the corner so I have such an overwhelming desire to hold onto people and appreciate every moment I get to laugh with or talk with or just generally spend time doing nothing in particular with a friend or family member!
So why all this positivity and overwhelming joy and passion for life?! To be perfectly honest, I don’t really know. I mean, I’m only human, and I definitely have my down times like anyone else. I think it’s partially relief: as those who know me well will know, I had a difficult year last year and spent a huge amount of time feeling really, really down. Now I’ve managed to get over those feelings and feel such a massive sense of relief that I’m not feeling like that anymore! And although I didn’t enjoy myself much last year, the root of my feeling bad has now become a relief in itself, plus some really good things happened to me last year – I got my degree, which I’m pretty pleased about, and met a couple of really amazing people who have become good friends of mine. So I guess a combination of that, having some perspective on life and taking the time to appreciate everything is really what makes me feel so good. Oh, and lots of exercise!
“If I could have one superpower, it would be to make you understand…”
So what am I hoping to achieve from this blog post? (If you’ve got far enough through this to find out then a MASSIVE thank you for reading all my ramblings!) Well, the purpose of this wasn’t to just go on about how great I feel, but hopefully to instil some sort of inspiration in my readers. Particularly if you’re having a tough time at the moment for whatever reason, I hope this will make you realise that things will get so much better. I feel like a completely different person now to who I felt I was last year, and I’m confident that this can be the case for anyone else who’s having a hard time! Someone said to me last year “at least if you’re having a bad time now you know there are better times to look forward to”, and she was so right. I may not be in exactly the position I want to be in in life but I’m just taking the positives wherever I can and hoping that I’ve persuaded you, whatever’s going on in your life right now, to do the same :)
