Today is the release of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department album.
As I always say, there is a Taylor Swift lyric for everything, and so many songs that fit varying phases in my life. Her music is what helped me survive when my world was sent into a tailspin on January 12, 2023.
Today, she dropped a song that felt so close to home, so visceral. It’s what I’m sure many women feel when their worlds are crumbling, but they have to keep the world spinning because people are depending on them: I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.
The lyrics remind me of the early days of building this site and the podcast. How amazing it is to be building something and succeeding; to appear on the outside to be doing well, but to be completely wrecked inside, grieving a loss.
I’ve been there and in some ways, I’m still there. Occasionally, I’ve been told to “stop whining” or “get over it.” It comes down to this: there is no set pattern, rhyme, or reason to grieving. It’s a messy process that will take you all over the place, make you do strange things, and is never really “done.” I myself have yet to figure out where my journey ends, or if it ever will.
There is this misconception that if you have “everything” you shouldn’t complain, even when things are hard. The show must go on. You hide the pain, even if everyone knows something bad has happened.
Ignoring it does more harm than good. Talking about it, normalizing it, that’s what truly helps us in healing.
That’s what we should really celebrate and honor: when we know someone’s life has imploded but they’re picking up the pieces.
That they’re thriving with a broken heart.
