Speaks to My Soul: Chapters by Brett Young

New years can be exciting, overwhelming, fun, frustrating – basically, a mixture of emotions and experiences.

For me they often feel like a chance to pause, to take stock. The turning of a page. The beginning of a chapter.

So, for my first Speaks to My Soul post of 2021, I chose to write about Chapters sung by Brett Young.

In this song, the story is about a boy wanting to play ball – and finding out his injury or physical limitations will not allow that to happen professionally:

Doc said you'll never play again
Worst thing I ever heard
It sounds rough, doesn't it?
I wish I knew back then

I bet each of us has at least one moment like that – where someone else tells us the “Worst thing [we] ever heard” and we think everything is over, there is no coming back from this set back.

There's no perfect life
You can't hold back time

I feel like 2020 taught this lesson over and over again. And often not perfect is REALLY not perfect. Not what we wanted, expected or would have chosen. But, “you can’t hold back time” – it marches forward no matter what we do.

It is also why there is no way to just “go back to normal”. Because things changed.

People.

Expectations.

World views.

And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Truth is that we all got stories
Gotta fail on your way to glory
Takes time tryna get it right

A recurring thing I’ve felt, and witnessed in others, is the feeling that our life is a series of crashes and burns and others’ lives are a series of highlight reels. And a lot of social media feeds into this image – literally.

But, it is true – we all “gotta fail on [our] way to glory” and it certainly “Takes time tryna get it right” but the trying is worth it.

… every future has a past

And we can only get to the future by living now, and that now becomes our past and creates our future.

…right now I can hear God laughin'
Guess he must have heard my plans
And my odes, thought it was a joke
Gave me more than I could ask

Every page you turn
Is a lesson learned

This lyric speaks to why we can’t just go back. Because along the way we learn lessons. And we can carry those lessons and experiences and increased knowledge forward with us.

Ain't we all, ain't we all just tryna get it right?

I know I am. And I believe {most} other people are too. And I hope we all keep trying together, because I think we have great power to get things right – or at the very least to make them better, for everyone.

I wish I knew back then

This refrain in the song is near and dear to my heart. I said something similar when I relaunched my Etsy shop in 2020:

Sometimes we have to do hard things. Things that scare us.

For, well, years I've been standing on the edge asking if I'm ready and willing to take the leap and run my own business. So, I've dabbled here and there. Taken a step in one direction. Then taken five steps back into something more "safe".

I'm ready to try again!

There are so many sayings out there - "Better done than perfect" "One bird in your hand is better than two in the bush" - that remind me that sometimes we just have to leap.

And, I'm sure that this time will be like so many others:

I'll learn as I go

• Things will get better
• Looking back at some of the things I'm doing now will make me cringe
• I'll wish I had known now what I will know then

But, now is all I've got, and I'm going for it!

We can’t know now what we will know then. But, we can trust that we will learn and grow and gain knowledge as we continue to experience life, continue to turn the pages and chapters day by day.

Things change in the blink of an eyelid

Not in every blink, but we never know which blink will bring the changes.

If you know someone who just experienced one of those blink of an eyelid changes, send them some love. If you can look back now and have some level of gratitude for one of those changes in your life, drop a comment below and share so we can all learn, grow, support and celebrate together!

P.S. Here's a link to the song if you want to give it a listen!