3. A favourite song

Notice I say 'a' favourite song, not 'your all time' favourite song. It's too hard to pick favourites of anything, I think, unless you only like one genre of whatever. If you like lots of stuff across lots of media and lots of genres then you probably get the same blank face as I do when someone says, "so what's your favourite band/movie/song/book?" It was much easier when I was a teenager, because at that age you develop obsessions that are much narrower (but that's a topic for later this month).

So a favourite song. Amazing Life by Clare Bowditch, from the album The winter I chose happiness.

I actually haven't listened to it for a while, but it's one of those simple songs that just grabbed me when I first heard it. Clare plays it at her conferences because it just resonates with so many of us creative types. It's the song I cried through when I was sitting right in front of her at the BHB Morning Tea last year. The lyrics:

You want to write a novel, make beautiful music
Act in the theatre with inspiring humans
Learn a language and run like the wind
Help people fit in,
Travel to every country and make a million dollars
And smile when your children have babies
Make the heart your home, inviting and warm

You want an amazing life
But you can't decide
You think you have to be fully formed already
Don't you?
You want an amazing life
But you can't decide
You don't have to be just one thing
But you have to start with something

You'll be a little bit older in October
You've reneged on your pre-birth promise
Now you think that the story is over
Let me encourage you to know
You will feel it when it is over
It feels like hell
Take it as a sign you need time to be still and listen for a while

You want this amazing life
But you can't decide
You think you have to be fully formed already
Don't you?
You want an amazing life
But you can't decide
You don't have to be just one thing
But you have to start with something