I remember exactly where I was and who I was with when I heard Taylor Swift’s Fearless album for the first time. I was driving with a girlfriend to Alpine Meadows.
It was early in my divorce and my body and soul were sore and gutted from all of it; the blame game, the feeling of failure, and the mourning process of saying goodbye to the person you had previously committed your entire world to. Before my friend popped that CD into my car’s disc drive, I thought of Taylor Swift as a country star for teenagers. Not at all relatable.
But as the music played, my soul expanded and I felt seen and heard and supported all at once from these beautiful songs coming from the car speakers.
White Knight
Forever & Always
You’re Not Sorry
So many emotions. So many expressions touched on, explained, and explored.
I became a T-Swift fan from that day on. She found my heart on that long car ride, and she became like a friend, through her experiences told in music.
And I think that speaks to the profoundness of music. It has the ability to pull out emotions in ways otherwise not possible. To connect us to each other.
As I sit at my desk listening to her latest album Fearless (Taylor’s version) and hearing these songs for the first time in years, I am in awe of how far I’ve come. I’m not just married again, I’m a mom… I’m sober… and I’m free from so much pain that ate at me that car ride through the mountains.
Taylor didn’t take the pain away, but she showed me – so long ago – that she understood. And on that day, that was all I could ever want.
And today, she’s shown me again, that we as humans are capable of incredible transformation. Incredible growth.
Music did that. Taylor did that.
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