I found peace in the desert. I found peace in the raging waves. I found peace in what you say… and I can finally breathe again. I found peace in the chaos. I found peace in suffering. I found peace in confusion. I found peace inside of me… and I can finally breathe again.
Are you in your forties, like I am? Do you remember an ’80s music group called Wilson Phillips? I loved the harmonies. I’m partial to layered voices moving up and down, crisscrossing as one line pulls my ear up and another plunges me low. I also like strings, especially the resonance of a cello. The echo of Wilson Phillips is still in me, and I think that’s why, when I first heard the song Peace by Anna Golden, I loved it. It’s become a song I listen to when I want to breath deeply.
In the moments that follow an episode of arrhythmia, when my body is finally quiet… unimaginably weak, but quiet… well, the right song piped into my soul via earbuds soothes me and resets my spirit. Peace does that for me.
Maybe some of you know what it feels like to struggle for air. For hours. Certainly we all know what it feels like for confusion or fear to hold us in its grip, making it hard to breathe. So, I love the gentle movement of this song from describing all of the places of peace to this simple acknowledgement: I can finally breathe again. Some days I resonate with this line both metaphorically and literally, and I love that.
Here’s the song on you-tube. Listen to it loud – music is always better when you’re swept away by the sound: Peace by Anna Golden
And here is a bonus.
One of the women who contributed to Strong Spirit introduced me to this song a few months ago. I like it because we tend to feel ashamed of weakness — I have often felt like less because of the ways I am weak. This song suggests a shift in our view of the parts of ourselves that are broken.
Weak, Proudly by Jillian Edwards
“My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.” 2 Cor 12:9
[foogallery id=”575″]
