This morning while doing a half-hearted run on the treadmill, I was listening to one of my favorite Old Dominion songs, No Such Thing as a Broken Heart. I’ve heard this song many times but for whatever reason the lyrics really resonated with me today. I guess I’ve never really contemplated the lyrics. In my pursuit to be a happy, functioning, successful grown up who rolls with the punches, I really connected with the following lines, “You can’t keep the ground from shaking no matter how hard you try, you can’t keep the sunsets from fading, you’ve got to treat your life like you’re jumping off a rope swing, baby ’cause the whole thing is really just a shot in the dark. You’ve got to love like there’s no such thing as a broken heart.”
As a person who loves to plan and know what my next move is going to be – seriously, I can go down a rabbit hole in my head and realize that I’ve somehow started planning the next 8-10 years of my life then I remember to chill out because I don’t even know what I’m eating for dinner tonight – I’ve really had to work at this whole ‘rolling with the punches’ thing and accepting change and life’s lemons as they come. This song resonates with me because of the active effort I’ve made in my own life – to love and live like there’s no such thing as a “broken heart” (maybe it’s an actual broken heart or it’s a failure at your job or a tough situation with a friend or a whole slew of other things). To me this means jumping into the people, relationships, job, hobbies, tasks, passions, and events I choose to have in my life with my heart and soul, and not letting the fear of life hurling a lemon my direction hold me back. I’ve come to realize that no matter how much you stress, worry, doubt, and close yourself off things will play out how they’re going to play out – whether that means sunshine and rainbows or a whole crap ton of lemons.
Now don’t get me wrong, this mindset does not come naturally to me as a natural planner and over thinker, but I make an effort every day to view the world through this lens. And some days I’m much better at it than others. But what I’ve learned in my short time adulting is that when you step past fear and tackle things with your heart and soul and genuine effort it’s nearly impossible to walk away with serious regrets. I’m not a true believer in having regrets anyway but seriously think about it. If you can walk away from a situation and know that you truly gave it your all how can you have any real regrets?
But there are broken hearts and failures and let downs and all the things sooo…? That’s the beauty of it. Of course there are heartbreaks and let downs. They’re inevitable so why live life fearing them and tip toeing around them? Accept your lemons. Cry when it hurts. Laugh when it’s funny. (More Old Dominion lyrics btw). Learn from your lemons, heartbreaks, and failures. We’re grown ups now and we have to deal with life when it doesn’t go our way (whether it’s because of our own actions or not). I think we can all attest to the fact that our low points, trials, and tribulations absolutely result in more personal growth than our times of smooth sailing and daisies. I can confidently say that I’m grateful for the lemons and lessons learned that have added to my grown up tool belt.
So get out there, give it all you’ve got, know you’ll fall down and skin your knees a few times or many times or all the time (because seriously we’re all out here winging it), but embrace the good and the bad, kick some ass, dance around your kitchen, and, for God’s sake, be happy!
Haley Meets World 