Mindful Music: Hold on to Hope

(mouse clicking) (soft music) Headspace Studios. (water trickling) Hi there. My name is Kessonga, and welcome to Radio Headspace. It's a lovely Tuesday. This week, I'm diving into my mindful music segment where I discuss specific song lyrics that for me, pertain to mindfulness and/or life lessons, and then I reveal the song at the end of the episode. Alrighty, let's get into today's lyrics. They go like this. "Someday, yeah, we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun. Someday when the world is much brighter." So what do these lyrics mean? What do they speak of? Well, for me, it can be summed up in one simple but powerful word, hope. I first really noticed this song when I heard it in the classic film by John Singleton called "Boyz n the Hood". The scene from the movie that the song is attached to is one of despair and tragedy, which is appropriate, because the song speaks of continuing to be hopeful even in the face of tragedy or despair. The song states that someday, we'll walk in the rays of the beautiful sun, meaning that that day is not here yet, implying that there is some sort of negativity or ugliness that's present. (birds chirping) (soft music) I interpret this as a metaphor representing the continuous turmoil from war, to racism, to homophobia, to power struggles, to environmental issues, and the list goes on and on. My personal belief is that the world will always be dealing with some kind of issue. So when I hear the lyrics, "Someday, we'll walk in the rays of the beautiful sun," I don't necessarily interpret this as there one day being a state of perfection. I feel this is talking more about there being improvement, a decline in the negativity that's present in the world. The second set of lyrics goes, "Someday when the world is much brighter." Notice it didn't say, "When the world is perfect." I think this is a huge point to really pay attention to as we may often find ourselves striving for perfection in our own lives or expecting there to be complete peace and tranquility in our lives or even in the world, when perhaps the wisest and emotionally healthier approach may be to set an intention for self-improvement or just showing up as our best selves each day. After all, as a wise man once said, "The world will only improve when the quality of its people improves." (birds chirping) (soft music) And so how does all of this pertain to the idea of hope? Well, I know for myself, it can be very difficult at times to maintain a sense of hope in the face of all the evil that's occurring in the world. And with the news and social media constantly feeding us information, it's often very difficult to escape it. So how do we hold on to this notion of hope despite despair consistently rearing its head all around us? Well, that's where...