Well Played, Universe. Well Played.

Okay, let me set the stage here. It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’ve been sitting at my computer doing my actual job all morning. You know, the one that pays me, as opposed to obsessing over logos, blog posts, fonts, and whether the cactus stays in the image or not. My eyes were starting to cross, so I decided it was time for a break and a trip to get my favorite iced coffee.

Lately, the soundtrack to pretty much every car ride has been Stevie Wonder’s Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing. Here’s the thing about me and songs. I don’t just like a song. I enter into a short-term committed relationship with it. I will listen to the same song over and over and OVER for days until some mysterious itch in my brain has finally been scratched and I can move on with my life. TikTok has informed me that this may be something I should “look into.” I have decided to ignore that suggestion.

Anyway, I’m driving along, Stevie Wonder blasting for probably the 47th time this week simply because I happened to think about the movie Silver Linings Playbook a few days ago and the famous dance scene at the end of the movie. So, I’m singing away, very confidently I might add, when for the first time I actually listen to the words. Not sing them. Not know them. Actually hear them and I’m kind of stunned.

Don't you worry 'bout a thing, mama.

Cause I'll be standin' on the side

When you check it out

Wait. How have I listened to this song approximately 47 times this week and never actually heard what he was saying? Then I’m just driving down the road and really listening and I get it. Like, really get it.

I don’t care if you call it God, the Universe, a Higher Power, or something else entirely. If you believe there is something bigger than you, something you don’t have to completely understand or control, then you probably know what I mean. This song is about faith. Faith that you don’t have to worry about every damn thing. Faith that change is going to happen whether you white-knuckle your way through it or not. Faith that you can let other people go through their own changes without jumping in and trying to manage the outcome. Maybe most importantly, faith that when you go through your own changes, you aren’t doing it alone.

Then I had to laugh, because for DAYS I had been happily driving around listening to this song with those colorful birds from Rio dancing around in my head, mixed with scenes from Silver Linings, because that is the completely normal way my brain organizes information. Meanwhile, the message was right there. The whole time. Playing over and over and over again. I had completely missed it!

Then something else clicked. One of the lines from the movie (if you haven’t watched it yet, just do) that has always stuck with me is, “Pay attention to the signs.” Wait. Seriously? I’d been listening to the same song for days because some random thought about this movie popped into my head, a movie that literally tells you to look for the signs, while completely missing the sign of the message in the song. You really can’t make this stuff up.

Maybe signs aren’t always some huge, dramatic moment. Maybe sometimes they’re something you’ve heard 47 times before you finally hear it differently. Maybe they’re hidden in ordinary Sunday afternoons, coffee runs, movies you’ve watched four times, and songs you’ve played so many times that everyone else in your car would really like you to pick something else.

Maybe the point isn’t that the sign suddenly appeared. Maybe it had been there all along. I just finally got quiet enough, or maybe repeated it enough times, to actually hear it.

Plot twist...Okay, Stevie. I get it now.