When Nature Inspires: Songs Are All Around Us If We Just Look and Listen

When I started writing my latest single, “Border Wall,” I was in deep observation mode; in fact, most of the song, if not all, was inspired by the events during Spring 2020. I  witnessed our country go through a deep divide that was truly apparent to all who were watching. I’ve felt division before but usually in good fun at a sporting event. Contrary to the fun rivalry of a sporting event, this was real life where the stakes were as high as a goal post. 

A phrase that kept coming to mind as I saw us inch deeper into the pandemic and the widening chasm was, “I war against you, you war against me.” Having this type of tone playing in my head, I looked to my environment to fill in the missing pieces. I ran a lot that spring and summer as an outlet to calm my nerves but also to just get out in the world again. To be in the fresh air and feel the sunshine on my skin. While on one of those runs, I looked at the grass and saw a dandelion puff fly in the wind. I watched as those little seeds scattered and thought, “Oh, here is an interesting line - ‘Dandelion fluff swirls spreading its seed in the wind, tell me where will it land and how will it spin?’” This was an homage to the multitude of back and forth lying that was going on and the clear misinformation and falsities that were being disseminated. These lies were floating and spinning around just like the dandelion fluff that would eventually take seed and then root itself in an unsuspecting patch of grass only to become an invasive weed. Real life can easily call to nature and each of those observations and parallels are drawn become fodder for a song. Listen again to one of your favorite songs and you may find them there :)

Another source of inspiration found me when I got stuck on a different part of the song, trying to paint an idyllic atmosphere, that slice of heaven on Earth that everyone wants. I sat on my balcony, lyrics in hand. I was still and watched the clouds. The clouds that day were beautiful pinks, purples, yellows, and oranges. As I watched clouds pass overhead, it dawned on me: for the time being, this was my heaven on Earth. I observed the fluffy and wispy scattered clouds more as they flew through the air; they looked so incredibly soft, almost touchable. And then the line hit me, “Pink cotton skies in the distant wind, where will our lives begin.” While heaven on Earth is close for some, it is but a mere dream for others. As we moved through 2020, this became more apparent. There not only was a great divide politically but a great disparity between those who had and those who did not. Especially when we watched people die from not having adequate access to healthcare. 

For other parts of the song, I drew on the ironies of life and how we can often put our hopes in the places that are least likely to give us security, like money. Those with the dollar speak loudest but are not always speaking in truth or faith. When we put our hope in something fleeting like wealth, or the wealthy—as if they know any better than any of us—we continue to draw deeper into a shallow and greedy society. A society that will stop at nothing until its ultimate mission is fulfilled: to absorb all of the power. 

And as we observe the greatest irony of them all: For those so incessant to grab power, especially at the cost of others’ lives, they will soon pass away like those that they stepped on to get to their position. We all die in the end. And the song comes to a close. The ultimate curtain call. 

What I want listeners to take away from this song is that if we do not change our societal framework and get away from the divisiveness that is inherently built off of a power struggle, we will all end up doing ourselves. Grim, yes, but read “Lord of the Flies” to better understand the demise of society when power runs rampant (and yes, we act like school children running amuck).  

We have the capacity to hate or to love and I implore society to choose the latter and give up this power play or we will watch our societal fabric get eaten away by the locusts. While society shouldn’t be this fragile, we've built it on a house of cards that can crumble at any moment. Until we start to build it on a firmer, more connected foundation, we are just waiting for someone to pull out the wrong card and we will watch, and be part of, the whole thing crumbling around us.

The choice is yours, but ultimately, it is up to us as a society. We can choose a path to go down: One of interconnectedness and strength, or one of division and weakness. Wouldn’t it be nice if we made the right choice for once, one that is void of the toxic power we all seem to be seeking but very rarely ever taste?