I listen to music often. When I am working on my farm it is common to hear my playlist blasting extra loud on my bluetooth speaker or to see me wearing my earphones as I do my chores. It was a day like this recently when a Tom Misch song captured me. It captured me in a way that made me put the song on repeat for over an hour.
After the third replay I added it to one of my playlists, the one entitled My Frequency. His song It Runs Through Me is about why I even have a playlist called My Frequency. On this playlist are some songs that I feel could have been written with my emotions. They capture an idea or an emotion with their music and lyrics that I could have written from my own experience. On this playlist are “my jams,” songs that always pierce my soul. And then I heard this song about that feeling, those emotions, about there being something special, something that was all his. It was his music and his guitar that was his lane and his lane only. It was his way of expressing himself and all the swirling emotions that he was conveying to the listener. And it was his music that helped him move to a place of clarity. I imagine that for him, songwriting would be like me talking something through with a friend and using that conversation to help me bring clarity to an idea.
And then I knew what he was talking about. I don’t play the guitar or write songs but I know what it feels like to be in my lane. When I am singing my life song, my jam, it runs through me the same way he sings about. When I am in my lane, living my life’s purpose, I love the way it flows. I love the way it grows. There’s something about this journey that takes me far. It’s like my own personal, special song that moves my mood along. When I think about living my purpose, it brings me clarity, and where this journey will go I’ll never know, but I know it will be beautiful.
My purpose, my music, gives me sun even in the winter. It’s all mine, and no one can sing my song.
As I took the song off the hour-long loop that I had blasting through my earphones, I was reminded that part of the quest of life for me is about finding my lane and staying as close to the center of that lane as possible. I was reminded that the universe has provided a lane just for me to operate in. In that lane I can flow freely and live life fully each day. My life is my song, and just like Tom Misch sings, “this groove is mine.” So this song has been added to the My Frequency playlist as a reminder to find my own personal lane, my groove.
What is your groove? What is your lane? How does it feel for you when you are in your lane, living your life song? I challenge you to find it, live it, and then see whether what he sings about runs through you too.
If you already know your lane and you are living it, I challenge you to add the bass line to your groove. For me, that is like the exclamation point on my life song. Live your lane with flair and the biggest exclamation point you can. Where will it go? Who knows? But I bet it will be beautiful.
I’ll be in my lane, and when we cross paths on our journey, I hope to wave as I see you pass by in
your lane.
Inspired by It Runs Through Me by Tom Misch featuring De La Soul.