“Let Her Cry” by Hootie and the Blowfish was the first song I learned to play on acoustic guitar. No matter how rusty I allow my playing skills to get, it’s a song I can still pick up and play with relative ease. It helps that I memorized the lyrics another lifetime ago when I loved someone with a dependency. It was a situation that created feelings of helplessness, similar to the ones reflected passionately in the song’s lyrics.
As in the lyrics, I related to many nights waiting for the sun to come up, and him to come home. It was a period in my life that humbled me. I was in the dawn of adulthood, and thought I had love figured out, and life on perfect track. Instead, I was learning a valuable life lesson, that even I was as vulnerable to attracting a difficult circumstance as anyone else.
Ultimately, I didn’t have the patience to live with a problem I couldn’t fix, or the fortitude to withstand its impact. In retrospect, the maturity of our commitment wasn’t strong enough to survive both the dark side of his journey, and the cloudy side of mine. So, I chose to let him be, by letting him go. A choice I never regretted, and a lesson I never forgot.
Want to hear the music that inspires me? You can visit Spotify.com to hear the playlist, titled “Sunday Mornings by an Average Jill,” and follow me on Facebook to read more on Sunday mornings.