I saw Hozier live at Madison Square Garden the other day!!! One of my favorite artists these last few weird years. This was my second time seeing him live this year and both were ethereal and soul-healing experiences. Literally. Live music is my favorite thing in the world and experiencing some of my favorite songs, especially ones that soundtracked my life through some of the worst times (starting in 2020, the beginning of Covid lockdown), feels so full circle. There’s also something so special about hearing thousands of people sing lyrics that resonate so deeply with you, especially the painful ones. He has a song called "Abstract (Psychopomp)" that’s new (but I’ve already cried to several times) and I swear it’s one of the rawest/saddest/most beautiful things ever written. It makes me reflect so much on my own life and on moments that felt like everything but kind of just petered out over time. Like feeling like I’m in love but hitting a dead end, or wondering if I’ll ever get a sign and then having a deer run out in front of my car and then stop and run back into the darkness. Basically it makes me reminisce in an upsetting yet profound way. Dude, I just love the song. Whatever. 

Anyways, hearing thousands of people sing that hook, “see how it shines,” together made things make a little more sense to me. Like, life isn’t just about the pain we experience or the fact that we often feel it alone. It’s about being able to recognize that in ourselves and share it with others and scream along to songs about it. And in turn we don’t feel as alone, or as in pain. In fact, then we get to associate that pain with something more beautiful–– hope and connection and feeling vulnerable yet comfortably seen. So I’m glad that, for a moment, through music, I felt comfortably seen. And now I can hear those sad lyrics, and they’ll still be sad, but they’ll also be a reminder that life can be beautiful and joyous. So that’s what I gained from that show, and from a lot of other ones honestly but sometimes I think I forget it. That’s that.