"All We Can Do Is Keep Breathing"

This beautiful song came on my Pandora station last night and it really resonated with me as it is so honest and so open to interpretation.



For some, the lyrics may seem a description of apathy. “The storm is coming but I don’t mind.”

Or, maybe it’s a commentary on society – “People are dying, I close my blinds.” She could be alluding to how there are genocides currently happening around the world, but most of us are more focused on our plans for the weekend, our to-do-lists, the TV show line-up, the weather forecast, etc…. living in our own bubbles. I’m not saying this is right or wrong – it’s just true.

But, it could be that those lines are more about reconciling the vast aspirations we hold but have yet to achieve. “I want to change the world, but instead I sleep” – all the dreams we hold overshadowed by the immediate wants that often take precedence. This ties in with the Disney-Pixar movie “Up” that I watched for the first time last night. The couple’s dream was to live on Paradise Falls, but their reality became a simple but happy life … what an intimate metaphor for many people and a fear for many others.

Another line of the song may speak of interpersonal relationships or maybe even of a greater faith – “I want to believe in more than you and me.” Is this about romantic angst or about the search for meaning in this complex world? ... or both?

The repetitive message of the song is clear –“all we can do is keep breathing.” All of the interpretations are connected by the raw emotion and vulnerability they entail, and through everything that we navigate through in this world, we keep breathing, we live. A good friend of mine recently sent me a text message expressing that he was completely overwhelmed by all the suffering in the world and couldn’t see an end to it. I’ve had moments like that too – when the severity of problems in the world hits me and I wonder what I can do as just one person to affect change. In those moments, the only thing I know for sure is that I’m breathing, and it's all I can do to keep breathing. I become very aware of the fragile and sustaining cycle of breath...the constant in life.

So, through apathy, regret, awareness, effort, romance, pain, prayer, joy, and dreams, we keep on breathing and living. And, in that truth there is peace. For me, that is what this short, powerful song ultimately means.