I still remember it like it was yesterday… It was exactly around this time in February three years ago, I was back in school during Miss Morrison’s English class and we were given an assignment: Share a song you like or dislike with the class and explain why. All the class got so excited at the idea of music being brought to class but I wasn’t that thrilled because I knew that the presentation and explanation of the song I was planning on sharing wasn’t going to be an easy task, far from that, it was going to require from me a quest into my deepest insides, a real extensive surgery on my soul…
So, what song did I chose to pick? A day before, I was watching some Youtube videos and I fell on one where Whitney Houston was performing I Didn't Know My Own Strength live at AMA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BgeUfgyy-U (am not going to share the lyrics here for you to please watch the entire video before reading the rest of this note, or else you won't get what I mean).
A waterfall started streaming down my face… This lady had touched a spot on my heart I didn’t even know existed within me: Pure, raw, wild, untamable strength. I had just witnessed a woman rising up from ashes, a woman bringing painful and public honesty about her personal struggles, admitting her addictions and flaws, releasing herself from a somewhat abusive relationship, taking it one day at a time, wanting to start over, to live again. She came to a point in her life where she had to ask herself: If my life were a book and I were the author, How would I want the story to go? She was gaining back control of her life. She was owning her life back again. She was blossoming into the master of her own self…
I still remember this day I came to class and with tears streaming down my face I explained how I related to Whitney and especially to this song and how it had given me hope to fight my own inner demons rotting my soul, my dreams, my future, my whole life. I still recall this state of inner peace that took over me that day and how close I felt to Whitney and how grateful I was for this seed of hope that she planted so beautifully inside of me…
Thank you for singing about the greatest love of all which is found within,
Thank you for the art you shared,
Thank you for sharing your battles, your struggles, the good and the bad,
Thank you for your unbreakable faith,
Thank you for taking a second chance,
Thank you for being yourself,
Thank you for the love.
You left us, you joined him, the one you always looked up to:
“Take me far away from the battle
I need you
Shine on me!
I look to you,
After all my strength is gone
In you I can be strong
I look to you,
And when melodies are gone
In you I hear a song
I look to you.” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pze_mdbOK8&ob=av3e
The universe and you are one.
You will be missed, I am forever grateful, you made a difference.
SN
