The Song of Life

Feed Your Spirit

Daily Email from the Lindner Center of HOPE Spiritual Care Team

“It’s alright. It’s alright. It’s alright. It’ll be alright again.”

– Jennifer Nettles & Kristian Bush (Sugarland) from the song, Little Miss

I am a huge fan of the band #Sugarland.  This country duo and their music had their heyday when our country really needed their positive messages and upbeat vibe.  It was a few years post-9/11. I found their music refreshing and life-focused in the midst of mayhem, finger pointing and uncertainty. #anxiety

While the lyrics quoted above were not written until much later than that tragedy, and the song is about a young woman finding her grit, when I heard it recently I said out loud, “Yes it will.”  This current crisis will change our lives in ways we might never have guessed, just like 9/11 did. Yet, life will settle into a new rhythm.  It always does. #itllbealright

What we are experiencing is part of the natural rhythm of life – highs and lows, war and peace, summer and winter, laughter and tears, rain and sun.  Some lows are lower than others, but they do not stay there.  Eventually, life fights its way back out of the depths into new heights. #itiswhatitis

Like the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1, sung by #TheByrds (the band not the animal), there is a time for every season under heaven.  Fine-tuning how we see tragic circumstances can make the difference in how we travel the depths we find ourselves in.  Will you whistle while you work your way out #SnowWhite, or will you sing dirges and dig yourself deeper, needing rescue? #neilyoung

If we expect difficulty in life, those difficulties can be seen as part of the melody of living.  They can be part of your life song’s tune, like changes in key rather than an ending of the music.

There is a bridge in our quoted song that repeats, “I’m okay” several times.  It is a refrain of all those fighting their own way back from low points.  It is a mantra we should all be reciting.  It is a message that I pray you sing in your heart.  YOU ARE OKAY.  I am okay.  It’ll be alright again.

From Little Miss, by Sugarland: Be well, friends.

Little Miss brand new start

Little Miss do your part

Little Miss big ole’ heart beats wide open, she is ready for love

It’s alright. It’s alright. It’s alright.

Sometimes ya gotta lose until you win

It’s alright. It’s alright. It’s alright.

It’ll be alright again.