While a good, solid music appreciation post is nothing new to this blog, what you might find different about this post is the genre.
A far cry from our typical rap/hip hop…we’re going country today.
When I first moved to Texas 11 years ago, there were only 2 radio stations I found that came in clear in my town. And, naturally, they were both country stations. When I’m driving around with the kids all day long, I don’t usually have my phone connected playing music, so we listen to a lot of country radio. I could pretty much tell you any of the top 20 songs of the last 10 years, easily.
Not a ton of them stand out to me lyrically, but it does happen now and then. I mean, shit. Our wedding song that my husband and I had our first dance to was My Wish by The Rascal Flatts.
But this song…no matter how many times it comes on…damn. It gets me every freaking time.
Tough People by Drew Baldridge.
In case you don’t know it, or don’t want to listen, the premise is him taking about all these different scenarios where people are going through incredibly hard situations.
A little girl with cancer, a single mom working multiple jobs, a police officer responding to a shooting in a school…just…some heartbreaking scenarios.
But it’s also about hope and strength. How tough times make tough people. But it’s not said in a way that makes me want to roll my eyes and immediately turn in off.
Oh, there’s a whole lotta bad in the world out there
Oh, and it’s hard to keep goin’ when it don’t seem fair
Keep on fighting when your back’s against the wall
Keep on getting back up when you fall
Keep on keeping your head held high
‘Cause I still believe
Hard work pays off
Good beats evil
And tough times make tough people
It resonates so strongly with me, and for some reason it just…I don’t know. It makes me feel like I can do this, and I can handle all the shit I’m going through. All the hospital stays and the medical stuff and the trauma and the accidents and emergencies…all the ridiculous bullshit that my life often is.
My mental health has been really struggling lately. And I know it’s just the burnout. The events all piling on, and the extreme lack of a break, or even a few hours off. Every single day has been go, go, go for weeks now.
I have been isolating myself like crazy. Hardly talking to anyone, hardly even writing. And it sucks. I don’t like this version of myself.
Sometimes, it’s the little things, or the small reminders that life hands you, to remind you to just…take a breath. To remember that it’s okay, that things will be okay, and that right now, in this moment…I’m safe.
I am strong enough for this life I’m living. I might. Is always like it, or believe it…but I’m capable of getting through it.
So, for today, that’s what I’m going to focus on.
Just…continuing to get through it. And remembering that I am tough enough.
