Is your resilience well versed?

If not, maybe George and William can help.

Greetings, Friends!

As a human being walking through life on earth, you realize by now that adversity comes in lots of different shapes and sizes (S, M, L, XL—sometimes Big & Tall).

To deal with the adversities (especially the XLs), sometimes we need a little extra inspiration to put things in perspective. A little kick-in-the-pants reminder that we have the resilience to bounce back from disruption and setbacks.

Or, better yet, maybe we need a couple of reminders.

Reminder #1: Blow Away, by George Harrison.

Apparently, in 1979, after having abandoned music for three years, George was in a funk. Tired of playing the promotional game, weary of touring and feeling that his well of creativity had run dry.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, George explained the soggy impetus for a new song that helped him dissolve the funk: “I was in the garden and it was pouring down with rain, and I suddenly became aware that I was feeling depressed, being affected by the weather. And it’s important to remember that while everything else around you changes, the soul within remains the same; you have to constantly remember that and fight for the right to be happy.”

And so, like that, the torrents refilled George’s well of creativity, out of which bloomed the following:

Blow Away

Day turned black, sky ripped apart
Rained for a year 'til it dampened my heart
Cracks and leaks
The floorboards caught rot
About to go down
I had almost forgot

All I got to do is to love you
All I got to be is, be happy
All it's got to take is some warmth to make it
Blow Away, Blow Away, Blow Away

Sky cleared up, day turned to bright
Closing both eyes now the head filled with light
Hard to remember what a state I was in
Instant amnesia
Yang to the Yin

All I got to do is to love you
All I got to be is, be happy
All it's got to take is some warmth to make it
Blow Away, Blow Away, Blow Away

Wind blew in, cloud was dispersed
Rainbows appearing, the pressures were burst
Breezes a-singing, now feeling good
The moment had passed
Like I knew that it should

All I got to do is to love you
All I got to be is, be happy
All it's got to take is some warmth to make it
Blow Away, Blow Away, Blow Away

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: George Harrison

Blow Away lyrics © BMG Rights Management

To get the full effect, PLEASE click here and listen to the lyrics come to life in their musical context. But only if you want to flood your heart, soul and mind with melodic luminosity and boundless optimism. 😉

Reminder #2: Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.

I’ll never forget the first time I encountered this poem. My dear Aunt Terry was standing over her kitchen stove, clad in an apron, brandishing a wooden spoon like a sword (covered in spaghetti sauce?). And, suddenly, out it came—no doubt precipitated by something in our conversation: a flawlessly jubilant recital of the poem. She punctuated the last line with her trademark smile, which to me, has always had the power to chase away the darkest clouds. Today, Aunt T is at the end of her days, living in a memory unit. But I feel sure the words below are still etched in her failing, plaque-clogged neurons:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

Copyright Credit: William Ernest Henley, "Invictus" from Poems (London: Macmillan and Co., 1920): 83-84. Public domain.

Source: Poems (Macmillan and Co, 1920)

Until next time, go forth and conquer!

Peace & Love,

Mark