Welcome to Manuscript Monday, friends!
I haven’t had one in a few weeks, but I just wanted to check in, and keep you updated on both the progress of the book and the content. I’m still revising, probably revising it to death, but I can’t stand letting it out of my hands until I think it’s as good as I can make it.
Yesterday I was listening to Coldplay’s “Fix You.” The chorus of this song makes me emotional, and makes me reflect on my own life and this manuscript I’m writing.
The chorus, for those who don’t know the song (video below) is as follows:
“Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you.” .Many people, when relating to, or talking about this song, focus on the first and third lines of the chorus. It makes sense. Everyone goes through a time in life where we feel broken, beaten, or lost. We need home and sometimes desperately want that one person who we believe can make us whole again.
The first portion of my book is about the ways I was struggling to recover from loss. Loss, for me came in many faces, and many phases: death; assault; miscarriage; faith.
The chorus of “Fix You” resonates with so many who have gone through small or large trauma because the idea of home is safety, security, and love. And when you find that home (wherever, or whoever it is) you believe it/he/she can “fix you.”
In my case, “home” is my husband, Kurt. We’ve been married for twenty years, and I know that his unconditional love has given me the space and security in which to heal. The latter portion of my manuscript is about that healing and recovery, and finding what makes me thrive.
Thriving, I think, is what “ignite your bones” is ultimately about, and why it’s my favorite of the three lines here. Because in the end, no matter how deep the love, another person can actually only give us support, but it is we who must fix ourselves.
We can do that by finding the space, the love, safety and security in which to recover. It takes time: months; years; sometimes even decades. With time, strength and confidence return.
Ignites your bones is the fire that starts in the marrow, moving outward until we’re not only bathed in it, but spreading it to those around us. This is warmth; this is thriving; this is what it means to really live again.
Wherever you may be in life, may you find your “home”, and the means to ignite your bones again, and be who you are meant to be.
Love, Marla
I love this line “Because in the end, no matter how deep the love, another person can actually only give us support, but it is we who must fix ourselves.”
Thanks, Colin, and thanks so much for referring to it in your post.
Great post, Great tune! My little sister’s seldom seen, but beautiful, introspective and softer emotional side! Made me cry today, thanks!
Hahaha. Aww, it really is seldom, huh? I guess it’s easier for me to play the joker. Thanks for reading and for being moved by it.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful… love this… this post is so different from your other posts… this has an incomparable emotional depth to it… love it… 🙂 🙂
Thanks, Sreerupa. These are generally part of my off-line writing, but I do share the deeper stuff a few times a year.
Beautiful, Marla. Here’s to the fire. Thank you for lighting our world.
<3 🙂 Thanks, Pierr!