(Please be patient while I fangirl for a bit…I do eventually get to a point.)
I love Sara Bareilles. I love her music, her voice, her songwriting, her spirit, her realness, her humor, her potty mouth. There’s just so much to love. You can ask my husband…I’ve got all of her CDs, and most of them are loaded in my old van’s CD player—a place he understands is their rightful home.
We’ve seen her in concert (where my husband fell in love with her, too), and I hope to see her again. Though many singers and songs speak to me, the number of her songs that do is remarkable. Songs like “Uncharted,” “Brave,” “She Used to Be Mine” and so many more connect with me on multiple levels.
Her Broadway musical Waitress opens April 24, and…maybe if I win the lottery I will be able to see it. It’s a story about a flawed woman trying to find the strength to live her best life…more to relate to. More to love.
So…I guess you could say I’m a Sara B. fan.
My son asked me the other night, as I was working and listening for the umpteenth time to her latest CD from Waitress (she wrote the score for it), “Don’t you ever get tired of listening to the same songs over and over?” And after I answered no, we talked about how there are times you just want to learn the meaning and music…and really absorb it. And, of course—there’s the singing along aspect, too! Can’t forget about that.
As I began my work today, I put up my YouTube playlist, and Sara’s “Gravity” came up. I’ve seen this video many, many times…I love it…She walks a dark street while there are myriad things happening around her. It’s done in a single take, and the former video production assistant in me knows the logistical challenges of that. Then there is the sheer artistic, ethereal beauty and feel of it—and…of course…the music. Sara’s voice is warm, and full…and lovely. (That high note near the very end…just…wow.)
But today, as I stopped my work (squirrel!) to really watch it, I finally saw something I should have seen all along. The video…represents gravity. Like…it’s ridiculously obvious, and I missed it. There’s an earth, moon, artistic representations of stars and comets…and the song is titled…Gravity (hint, hint). It’s a moment that reinforces for me what a dork I am.
I feel like an idiot not seeing it sooner (as in the first time), but…that’s my point. (I told you I would eventually get to one.) Even when you think you really know something, you learn…you don’t. Not yet. Not fully. The video is richer to me now. When I hit play this morning, I thought I was going to visit an old friend, but…while it is an old friend, it’s one that still had something to reveal to me.
It’s that way with so many things. I can hear a song I’ve heard dozens of times and realize it now has a meaning for me that I was missing. Or I can pick up a book I’ve read or a movie I’ve seen before and recognize a theme—now hitting me over the head—that I overlooked the first time. People, too. Someone who I “know” shows me a side of them that I hadn’t appreciated before. There is just no end to the “reveal” of what and who is in my world.
That’s the beauty of life. When you look closely and are open to ongoing discovery, even familiar things can be new again. Yes, I can chalk up the way “Gravity” revealed itself to me as my just being a dork for not seeing it from the start, but…I choose not to. (Well, at least part of me chooses not to. The other part is shaking her head at me.)
Until I re-watched it today, the music had taken the forefront of my brain…filling my senses and winning my attention. Even though I had watched the video before, I hadn’t truly seen it.
So…a dork, tis true, but…at least I’m a dork who continues to open herself up to learning and knowing I’m never done. Never. Not until I take my last breath. And…if I play my cards right…even after that.
Every day is a reveal. Wonder what today will bring?
ALL PHOTOS ARE MY OWN OR USED WITH PERMISSION.
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