XO&So

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The Best Songs About Healing and Recovery

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Music, and especially lyrics, have always held a special place in my heart for their power to make you feel like you’re not alone in the world. Sometimes songs put into words exactly how you’re feeling but never knew how to say, and I think that is an incredibly special and useful tool in life. Since recovering from Whipple surgery, music has been especially valuable to me and has calmed me down or gotten me to sleep during especially hard times. I put together this list of my favourite healing/recovery songs along with the lyrics that make them so special in case they’re useful for anyone else!

  • In Repair – John Mayer Favourite lyrics:

I’m in repair, I’m not together but I’m getting there

  • Everybody Knows – John Legend Favourite lyrics:

‘Cause everybody knows but nobody really knows,
How to make it work, or how to ease the hurt.

  • Be OK – Ingrid Michaelson Favourite lyrics:

    Just give me back my pieces
    Just give them back to me please
    Just give me back my pieces
    And let me hold my broken parts

    I just want to be okay, be okay, be okay
    I just want to be okay today

  • War of My Life – John Mayer Favourite lyrics:

    All the suffering
    And all the pain
    Never left a name, oh

    I’m in the war of my life
    At the door of my life
    Out of time and there’s nowhere to run

    I’m in the war of my life
    At the core of my life
    Got no choice but to fight ’till it’s done

  • Faith – Celine Dion Favourite lyrics:

Faith!
Right beside you is where I’ll stay
It’s not too late
Just take me as I am, so please, have faith, in me

  • Heal Over – KT Tunstall Favourite lyrics:

Doesn’t take a genius to realize
That sometimes life is hard
It’s gonna take time
But you’ll just have to wait
You’re gonna be fine
But in the meantime

Come over here lady
Let me wipe your tears away
Come a little nearer baby
Coz you’ll heal over
Heal over
Heal over someday

  • And the Healing Has Begun – Van Morrison Favourite lyrics:

When you hear the music ringin’ in your soul
And you feel it in your heart and it grows and grows
And it comes from the backstreet rock & roll and the healing has begun

  • A Little Bit Stronger – Sara Evans Favourite lyrics:

I know my heart will never be the same
But I’m telling myself I’ll be okay
Even on my weakest days
I get a little bit stronger

  • Dog Days are Over – Florence & the Machine Favourite lyrics:

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

  • Recover – Natasha Bedingfield Favourite lyrics:

We will recover
The worst is over, now.
All those fires we’ve been walking through,
And still we survive, somehow.
We will recover
The worst is behind
And it hurts, but in time, I know that we will recover.

  • I’m Gonna Win – Foreigner Favourite lyrics:

I’m gonna win
I’m gonna win
I tell you, see when it comes down to the crunch
I’ve gotta beat life to the punch
I’m gonna win

  • Fix You – Coldplay Favourite lyrics:

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

  • My Silver Lining – First Aid Kit Favourite lyrics:

Something good comes with the bad
A song’s never just sad
There’s hope, there’s a silver lining
Show me my silver lining

  • By the Grace of God – Katy Perry Favourite lyrics:

By the grace of God
There was no other way
I picked myself back up
I knew I had to stay
I put one foot in front of the other
And I looked in the mirror
And decided to stay
Wasn’t gonna let love take me out that way

  • Swim – Jack’s Mannequin Favourite lyrics:

You gotta swim
Swim in the dark
There’s an ocean to drift in
Feel the tide shifting away from this war
Yeah you gotta swim
Don’t let yourself sink
Just follow the horizon
I promise you it’s not as far as you think

  • Light Me Up – Ingrid Michaelson Favourite lyrics:

And I want to keep us all alive
And I want to see you with my eyes
But I see you in the fireflies
And how extraordinary is that

Light me up again
Light me up again

  • Breathe – Anna Nalick Favourite lyrics:

‘Cause you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button girl,
So cradle your head in you hands
And breathe, just breathe,
Whoa breathe, just breathe

  • Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol Favourite lyrics:

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don’t quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They’re not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

  • Let It Be – The Beatles Favourite Lyrics:

And when the night is cloudy
There is still a light that shines on me
Shine on until tomorrow, let it be
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Oh, let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be

  • Heart of Life – John Mayer Favourite Lyrics:

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won’t all go the way, it should
But I know the heart of life is good

You know it’s nothing new
Bad news never had good timing
But then the circle of your friends
Will defend the silver lining

That’s it for now! Please let me know your favourite songs about healing or recovery so I can add them to my list!

xo – C

 

 

 

 

 

APRIL PLAYLIST

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AS IF I could make an April playlist and not start it off with Harry Style’s debut single! It’s #1 in 90 countries so I feel like I’m not being super biased by saying it’s very, very good. The rest of the list includes lots of new hits with some old faves mixed in.

PS. I’m thinking of making a public Spotify playlist with my monthly faves included. If you want to see March’s playlist, you can click here!

  • Harry Styles – Sign of the Times
  • Bleachers – Don’t Take the Money
  • Maggie Rogers – Alaska
  • All-American Rejects – Someday’s Gone
  • Not a Love Song – Michelle Branch (her whole new album, Hopeless Romantic, is awesome!)
  • RYE – Nice
  • Vanessa Carlton – Who’s to Say? (oh, and if you want to have a good cry, listen to “Annie”)
  • Birdy – Wild Horses
  • Banks – Crowded Places
  • Jimmy Eat World – Work

 

Thanks for checking this out, my loves! PLEASE comment your current music faves down below so I can give them a listen.

xo -C

The Most Perfectly Non-Sensical Shakira Lyrics

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 Oh, hello! I hope this extremely random post finds you well.

I’m a long time fan of Shakira because she just seems cool and because a lot of her lyrics are translated to English from her native Spanish which causes all sorts of fun. They end up sounding kind of kooky but usually end up making sense in their own wonderful way. She even says so herself in her song Dreams for Plans: 

My vocabulary wasn’t broad
I spoke so little English
And the words transferred
Sound like something odd.

Here are some of her funniest and best lyrics, in my opinion:

1. “Lucky that my breasts are small and humble,
so you don’t confuse them with mountains.” -Whenever, Wherever. As someone whose breasts are neither small nor humble, I can wholeheartedly say that they have NEVER been confused for mountains, or anything else for that matter.

2. “So I’ve got the arms to cuddle in
When there’s a ghost or a muse.” -The One. In all honesty, if there’s a ghost around, I’m going to be long gone so cuddling might not be an option.

3. “I don’t wanna look at fashion magazines
While someone does my nails.” -Ready for the Good Times. Like, not ever?

4. “I’d rather eat my soup with a fork
Or drive a cab in New York
Cuz to talk to you is harder work
So what’s the point of wasting all my words
If it’s just the same or even worse
Than reading poems to a horse.” -Poem To a Horse. I can actually relate to these lyrics on some level, but I’m not super familiar with horses’ literary tastes. Do they even enjoy poetry?

5. “For you, I’d give up all I own
And move to a communist country” -Don’t Bother. haki, please google “Communism” before you do anything rash.

6. “I’d like to be
The first white hair upon your head
To be your cherry pie
Your daily bread
I’ll cook for free
I’ll make your bed.” -Hey You. gain, I get where she’s coming from but this kind of sounds like a Craigslist ad.

7. “She Wolf” -She Wolf. Is a She Wolf kinda like a Sheezus?

8. “I wish I had longer legs
That I could fasten to your body so you’d take me with you everywhere.” – Long Time. Remember in Twilight when Edward says to Bella “You better hold on tight, Spider Monkey?” That’s what this makes me think of.

9. “God knows that I’m a good dancer.” -23 And so do the rest of us, Shakira. Remember “My Hips Don’t Lie?”

I’m glad we did this. Have a great night. XO