What's the song about?

This song is about dealing with negative thoughts and situations. It's about being patient.

The Writing Process

Most of my songs are built from some guitar riff I have. This song is an exception: I built it from lyrics.

As I was writing this blog post, I picked up a journal where I write down ideas. This journal offers "weekly challenges". To my surprise, the page I opened had the following challenge: "Today, when you feel a negative thought coming on, replace it with a positive one." Well, this is precisely how this song creation process started over a year ago!

At some point last year, I was feeling sad, with negative thoughts filling up my mind. It felt like a mountain of sorrow. But then, I thought of a how a constant small stream of water causes erosion. I ended up writing down this line: "May the stream of joy erode the mountain of sorrow".

A few months later, I either heard or read somewhere about the idea that when in darkness, we need to either create or reflect light.

Many meditation practitioners use the idea of the "blue sky" to find calm: it doesn't matter how dark the clouds are, the blue sky is always there.

Finally, earlier this year, I got really hooked on the show The Good Place. Towards the end of the show, one episode had one of characters say the following lines:

"Picture a wave. In the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it's there. And you can see it, you know what it is. It's a wave.

And then it crashes in the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be, for a little while. You know it's one conception of death for Buddhists: the wave returns to the ocean, where it came from and where it's supposed to be."
Last but not least, a few months ago (around May), I put together all of those thoughts and figured that they should go on an acoustic song, so I picked up my acoustic guitar and wrote the three main parts that have become the song.

Musical Influences

While not keeping any specific musical influences in mind, I know I like classical guitar and some folk songs, so I guess that's what I was somehow channeling here. I'd love to have the violin parts played on a real violin one day!

Writing the Vocals

The vocal melodies came up quite naturally once I had the guitar parts connected. I wanted to make sure the words were delivered clearly, because the message of the lyrics is the highlight of this song for me.

The Lyrics

The waves will form,
crash, transform
The water rejoins the ocean

Two ways to spread light
Create, reflect
Be the candle or be the mirror

May the stream of joy erode the mountain of sorrow
May this gentle breeze take the dead leaves away

Grow resilient as the branch or strong as the trunk
Behold uniqueness, the ancient trees

The sun is always out when covered by the dark clouds
Life goes on through its course at its own steady pace

Dream
Pursue
Live
Inspire

May the stream of joy erode the mountain of sorrow
May this gentle breeze take the dead leaves away
Let the wind clear the old misty memories
Plant the seed, let the trees flourish once again