21 June 2021 – When I was around fifteen, a friend of my mother’s introduced me to Carole King. I went over to her house to babysit, and she was playing Carole King’s album “Tapestry.” Many of the songs on the album stuck with me over the years. “You’ve Got a Friend,” and “Tapestry” especially. I would love it when they came on the radio, and when I started using iTunes, I added them to my playlist. I was also excited when I heard her voice singing her song “Where You Lead, I Will Follow” as the theme song for “Gilmore Girls.” I’m not sure what I loved about her. Her songs also made me a fan of artists who sing similar songs, Michael Martin Murphy, James Taylor, David Wilcox and Alison Krauss. I guess it was the storytelling to the beautiful music. I love a song with a good beat, but I am a huge sucker for beautiful storytelling.

For Labor Day weekend in 2017, I went to visit my brother in New York City. One of the musicals we saw was “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.” The musical was basically her story from when she decided she went to sell a song and became a full-time songwriter until she performed at Carnegie Hall – her first concert in front of an audience. She then sings her song “Beautiful.” The musical only covers 13 years of her life, ages 16 to 29. She did everything from start college to winning Grammys and getting married to getting divorced. Like us, on top of everything else, she had the same problems we do and sucked at fixing them until she didn’t. It’s a beautiful story about one of the most successful songwriters of her generation.

So why am I telling you all this? I am setting the scene for the part of this post that is my story. She ends her musical not with the title song from her album or even her most successful song. Instead, she ends it with one of her “other” songs (sarcasm here). She ends it sitting at the piano singing, “Beautiful,” and then standing at the piano singing, “I Feel the Earth Move.” A few years ago, in my 20s and 30s and maybe even my early 40s, I would have been disappointed and maybe even angry. I would have talked about it for the rest of the night, maybe longer. But, being mature and more in touch with my feelings (much more sarcasm, I felt the songs were the perfect choice to end that part of her story. It was also the perfect way to send off the audience.

I want to talk about these songs in the opposite order. “I Feel the Earth Move” is more than an energizing song that just gets you moving (if only a toe). It’s a call to action. We can take it literally. The Earth is literally moving (earthquake maybe?), so you might want to get moving. Get to safety, leave the area, helps others be safe. Or we can take it my preferred way and probably Carole King’s too. The world around you is moving; it is time for you to choose a side. Will you run away and hide and be safe? Or, will you take action and calm things down by finding peace. You must decide! But Carole King knows that before you have the confidence to take action, you must first feel beautiful.

The song “Beautiful” starts and ends with, “You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face / And show the world all the love in your heart / Then people gonna treat you better / You’re gonna find, yes, you will / That you’re beautiful as you feel,” and tells a story in between. This lyric has been my wake-up alarm for the last four years (kind of, keep reading). What a wonderful way to wake up. It’s energizing, and it makes you smile. It is also a daily affirmation. Even if for me the affirmation wasn’t that I was beautiful, it was a reminder that my heart was. Try it! It is a wonderful alarm.

About a year and a half ago, my life became so incredibly stressful that I no longer really slept. I was sleeping from about two to five every night, then laying in bed for another hour and a half before I had to go to work. Not sleeping meant no alarm, which none of the things that “Beautiful” did for me in the mornings. After quitting my job, I was sleeping a little more, but I still didn’t need an alarm and still don’t. But now, I set random alarms for when I am drinking my morning coffee. Just a reminder from Carole King that I am as beautiful as I feel – so work harder at it. Once I did this a few weeks ago, I got my pep and my smile back. I’m not saying that “Beautiful” has canceled my depression or broke down all my walls or healed all my cracks or repaired my heart and soul; I’m just saying that it feels that way.