How Coldplay's "Fix You" Can Help Your Grief Journey
I can’t remember a time when music wasn’t a vital part of my life. After my son Brendan died, I thought I couldn’t listen to music because it made me too emotional. I closed my piano, convinced I could never play again, but songs hummed inside me until my fingers itched and I needed to play them, needed to feel the notes surround me like a warm blanket.
Music became a golden thread that connected me to Brendan. It captured my emotions and helped me process my own feelings. And whether I needed to cry or laugh or find strength, peace or hope, I discovered there was a song for that.
People send me songs all the time now. A friend sent me this song years ago when Coldplay first released it. Chris Martin wrote it for his then-wife when her father passed away. It’s a song about letting light guide you home.
Of course, I got the lyrics wrong, which I do ALL THE TIME.
Instead of Lights will guide you home, I heard it as I will guide you home.
Sometimes, I prefer my own made-up version, but his version of LIGHT is so much better because it is filled with hope. Whether you think of the light as God or a higher power or simply love, this idea that Light will guide you home fills me with hope & strength. And oh, that line about it igniting your bones is incredibly powerful because it means we have the power to hold hope within. I visualize the fire of love and hope deep inside me, feeling it in my bones.
This song is almost a prayer, something like this:
May we all be filled with the fire of love & light. May we feel it in our bones, even when we’re swimming in sorrow. And may we reach out to others so we can share in their light or shine and share some of our own light.
Below are three videos of this song. The first is the original, by Coldplay. I love how this song swells, adding drums & guitar & organ, but also the light in the video, underlining his message that light will guide you home.
The second is a cover by Sam Smith. It’s more stripped down and those opening piano chords get me each time. But, oh, his voice. You can get lost inside the colors of his voice. And when the choir joins in, it feels like a rainbow of light swirling around you.
And finally, I couldn’t resist including the third version by Young at Heart, a senior citizen choir. The soloist is Fred Knittle, but it wasn’t meant to be a solo. Unfortunately, two singers died before they could perform it. The soloist needed oxygen in order to sing it. And so this song layers on another meaning, one of resilience and strength as these senior citizens push through their grief and physical challenges and honor their lost friends. It’s filled with sorrow and yet it’s beautiful and filled with light and the meaning of life.
May we all be filled with the fire of love & light. May we feel it in our bones, even when we’re swimming in sorrow. And may we reach out to others so we can share in their light or shine and share some of our own light.
Let me know which version is your favorite!
