So Dare to Move Beyond the Nothing

Here we are after Joni Mitchell’s great debut in the 1970s. It is more than a decade later and she was still pumping out the hits, yet they are softer, more introspective somehow. Like this tune where she talks about having everything anyone could desire, yet without love she would be nothing. Her perspective has changed over the years to the point that she understood the power of love, both the kind you give and receive.

I was in high school in 1982 trying to figure out myself, boys, school, fitting in or not trying too hard. I’m not sure I heard this song back then, now more than forty years later I get it. I have to agree with Joni Mitchell, that having everything in the world means nothing if there is not love.

We all want love. We want to be accepted for who we are, what we bring, what we think and how we learn. Be it love from a friend, family, a romantic interest or a pet, we all need to give and receive love to be a full human being. No one wants the kind of love that plays games or manipulates, pushes or pulls things to get it’s own way. No one wants to be forced or controlled in order to feel loved. Love needs to be freely given and reciprocated with a generous heart. And we all know when we are loved and when we are being controlled, the difference is obvious.

We all want to love ourselves, no matter how hard we struggle in figuring out who we are and what we want. Some people love to do the same things we do, others have a passion that is no where near our own. Some people have different skills and talents than us, which means we have the ability to freely be ourselves because they have those other things covered. People are all different and that is both frustrating and fabulous all at the same time. Sometimes the people we love the most treat us poorly, don’t really know us, yet we still love them. And sometimes we are blessed to know love which leads us to all the other things Joni Mitchell mentioned in this song. Because in the end if we do not have love we are nothing. So dare to move beyond the nothing and allow yourself to love freely, kindly, generously and with a passion that ignites love in others.