have you heard of colbie calliat's song, try? if you haven't yet, i encourage you to try, find it and listen to it.
i first heard this song in the subway, sung so beautifully and emotionally by a middle-aged gypsy-looking woman, made even more beautiful by the guitar accompaniment of her husband. i'm just guessing that was her husband. they just look so connected and happy doing music together. they seem to share something that will make you wish you have someone to share that something with too.
initially, it was only the melody that caught me. what actually got me stuck to the ground i was standing on was the lyrics. never mind the errand i was supposed to rush that day. there were a few people who stopped for a while to listen, to drop a two-dollar bill or coins to the hat they laid on the floor. but i remained to be their sole audience up until the song came to an end.
Put your make-up on
Get your nails done
Curl your hair
Run the extra mile
Keep it slim so they like you, do they like you?
Get your sexy on
Don't be shy, girl
Take it off
This is what you want, to belong, so they like you
Do you like you?
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try
Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your credit cards
You don't have to choose, buy it all, so they like you
Do they like you?
Wait a second,
Why, should you care, what they think of you
When you're all alone, by yourself, do you like you?
Do you like you?
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try
Take your make-up off
Let your hair down
Take a breath
Look into the mirror, at yourself
Don't you like you?
'Cause I like you
i clapped so enthusiastically after she sang the last line, and thinking and feeling it was not enough, i walked up to her saying, "it's beautiful." she seemed pleased to hear that. but i am the one more pleased as i received a free treat from the world by simply staying there, listening to them.
we don't have to try so hard. we don't have to change a single thing.
although the song apparently tells us to love our physical self, be it balding, wrinkled, freckled or dark-skinned, in a much deeper sense, it is the person beyond the face that stares back at us in the mirror that we should really like and love.
the very things that i like about myself are the same things that make me hate me. i often wish i am not perfectionist and that i don't care too much about the things and people i care about. because when things go awry, it frustrates me hugely. it keeps me up all night. it drains me and dries me up. it makes me less happy. i hate it that my brain is wired this way!
but i wouldn't be uniquely me if not for these qualities. i sure do need some rechannelling of energy and reconsider the things that matter and prune out those that don't and adapt a certain degree of nonchalance for things trivial and insignificant -- without totally foregoing the imperfect perfectionist i was designed to be, without having to let go of the human being in me that cares deeply.
i'm trying not to try so hard. and i like myself a little more each day. loving me better, always better than yesterday.
