Smith, according to Sarah (and me)

Sarah McLachlan has been making music I enjoy for so many years. In '03, she released "Afterglow", which is one of my all-time favorite albums by anyone, anywhere. Not necessarily the music -- though I enjoy it -- but more because of the raw emotion in the lyrics. I guess I like the catharsis.

But here it is, the crux of my fondness for this album: track 6, entitled "Push."


"Every time I look at you the world just melts away. All my troubles, all my fears dissolve in your affection. You see me at my weakest but you take me as I am. When I fall you offer me a softer place to land.

"You stay the course, you hold the line, you keep it all together. You're the one true thing I know I can believe in. You're all the things that I desire, you save me, you complete me. You're the one true thing I know I can believe.

"I get mad so easy, but you give it room to breathe. No matter what I say or do, you're too good to fight about it. Even when I have to push just to see how far you'll go, you don't stoop down to battle me, you never turn to go.

"You stay the course, you hold the line, you keep it all together. You're the one true thing I know I can believe in. You're all the things that I desire, you save me, you complete me. You're the one true thing I know I can believe."


There's more, but those two verses plus the repeating chorus just summarize my husband so well. The song embodies the simple truth of why I could never imagine loving anyone for a lifetime except the guy who took me on as his wife.

I'm home this morning doing laundry, cleaning the house, and reassembling a bathroom that experienced, shall we say, technical difficulties before school. I had the stereo on, and when this song played, it just dropped me. I literally sat where I was, cleaning rag in my hand, and wept for the simple purity of the expression.

Of course, now I'm wasting time sitting here telling you about it... but it felt somehow momentous enough to share, important enough to set aside the To-Do list and mark the feeling; for I believe moments like these are the building blocks of happiness. To have overlooked it would have been foolish.