I do believe Jackson Henry and I have done something that will change your life. No matter who you are, what your struggle is, or how you are presently being challenged.
We have written a song that is doing some amazing things. A select few have heard it, including the “Tontechniker” that recorded it Tuesday in Winterthur, Switzerland (www.hardstudios.ch). The song is based on Emily’s struggle for physical well-being in “Before You.” Unbeknownst to me until today, Jackson, my collaborator on our album “Before You: the Songs,” struggled with a rather serious physical knee injury, which is somewhat ongoing. My Sound Engineer, upon recording the song, shared his own struggle after a freakish snowboarding accident, also an ongoing injury.
You just find a way to put one foot in front of the other, right? No matter what the present challenge is: lost job, lost love, lost of health, loss of money, loss of faith.
I’ve had examples from friends this week that shock me. One friend is pregnant after a miscarriage and is feeling sharp pains in her stomach…today she found a lump in her breast. Another friend’s mother clings to life in the same ICU where her father lost his life a few days ago from an unrelated cause. A friend is being kicked out of this country because they don’t want him. Another friend is fairly certain his wife is having an affair with his best friend. A girl, unknown to me until Tuesday night, is in Zürich living in her car because she has a job but not enough money or the right papers for an apartment (LA will fix that, by the way). A buddy, one of the most avid skiers I know, just broke his leg in about 80 bagillion places on the cusp of ski season. That’s just a few and that’s just THIS week. And it’s only Thursday.
“Inside of me is broken…inside of me is uncertain…inside of me is scared…inside of me is wanting…”
Jackson and I both see a “collapse” as sometimes bringing about necessary and restorative change. Sometimes, to be honest, it doesn’t. I just recorded a song about broken dreams and broken backs and I could not expand my own rib cage due to intense and ongoing back and neck pain. Clearly, there are some struggles that just aren’t over yet.
But we still have hope. The above-mentioned friends are posting on FB and via email how hopeful they are. My buddy that is being kicked out? He’s having a big party. My skier buddy is having a “stick a foul sticker on my cast” Apero. Why not? I certainly got my Karen Carpenter on, bum back be damned.
I think this song is gonna give you hope. Whatever you’re going through. Jackson and I are gonna be your Hope Bringers, ok y’all?
@BeforeYouBook and BeforeYou FB page and find the book on amazon.com, bn.com, and in iBookstore 
The World of Before You 