A number of years ago…I knew Sarah McLachlan. And when I say I “knew her”…I guess it’s more like I knew who she was. She hung out downtown…I’d see her at Backstreet Amusements…she didn’t quite fit in…didn’t quite play by the rules. She was someone I would have loved to be more like…if I could have, for one minute, played things the way I wanted to…for me.
I picked up her new album “Laws of Illusion” this week…her first album in seven years. I’ve followed her for years, interested in her music and poetic ramblings. It has nothing to do with the fact that she grew up in Halifax as I did, but that she is, in my opinion…brilliant.
I’d played the CD a number of times when suddenly it hit me…I may have known who Sarah was all those years ago, saw her around a few times, trying to make her mark…but at this moment and time…she knows who I am more than I ever knew her.
It’s my understanding that Sarah’s been through a rough couple of years which is so clear in her album but specifically in the song “Forgiveness”…as she describes a point in your life when you’re at a standstill, completely unwilling and unable to forgive a person you once thought so highly of…so disappointed. How difficult it is to accept the changes in your life…and how remarkable to be able to put it into words.
From everything I hear in her songs, it gets better…time is the healer. As she says in “Rivers of Love”, “It all comes down to leaving it all behind and moving on…and never be lonely again.”
Possibly heartache is needed to bring you to the point of knowing who you truly are as a person. Sarah seems to have voiced who she is….vulnerable but so very strong. Heartbroken…but healing.
With the revival of Lilith Fair this Summer, I can only imagine that Sarah is over the worst of it and moving on to a new phase of her life.
I wish you the best my friend…and I can call you that now…since you know me so well.
I heart Sarah!! She always knows just how to say it…