A Meditation on Change & Growth:
“Turn Away” from Beck’s award-winning album“Morning Phase” is an exceptionally powerful ode to change and personal growth. For the last year, I’ve listened to it every night to compel myself to be different. I’ve wanted to write this post for a while. Behaviors which previously protected us from trauma also cripple, especially when they’re no longer needed. Changing our behavior is complicated and difficult, whether learned from a bad boss or bad relationship. Beck puts this in perspective, with a humble spotlight lifting us towards new ways of being. It deserves discussion because of its gentle approach to something so painfully hard, but so important.
Embrace falling
Turn, turn away
From the sound of your own voice
Calling no one, just a silence
Learn to see you’re at the edge
Fall off the avalanche
Turn away
You’ve been shouting, screaming and driving everyone away with rhetorical frustrations that have no answer. You stand strong for nothing. You’re left alone, in silence, at the edge of madness, panic, and anxiety. The ground is collapsing under your feet as you tear at every foundation, only to find instability. You’ve been sidelined. Now stop standing still –
Embrace love
Hold hold the light
That fixes you in time
Keeps you under
Takes you over
The wall that love divides,
between waking and slumber
Turn away
Find the epiphany that makes you present again, available again. Find the future and see your true self. Hold onto the ideas that break down your psychological armor and inhibitions and fears, the identity you remember when you’re between states, away from fear or the original trauma.
Embrace change
Turn turn away
From the weight of your own past
It’s magic for the devil
And betray the lack of change
Once you have spoken
Turn away
Your past is an anchor in bottomless sea. The devil will tempt you with it, to destroy your future, to keep you sidelined. Leave your past behind. Go somewhere new. Open your mouth; speak something different –
Show you’re growing again.
