Nothing Can Stand In Your Way
…..I know it’s “the song” from the first three notes….. it brings me to a full stop every time….a gentle whisper of what I know is next to come…..I know the voice, I know the emotion…..most of all I know I’ll let it summon the emotions I keep so neatly tucked away like it has done the last few hundred times I’ve listened to it in the last three years……I hope he receives royalties!
“You’ve taken all the chances, hoping everything works out right.”
…and I brace myself for what comes next….
“So much for romances….I won’t be holding you every night”
……that’s when my eyes start to burn, my throat goes into hard swallow spasms….and quietly hope, this time I’ll make it through the entire video without feeling the intense “feels” that his voice, his emotion dares us to relate to….
That’s not always been my reaction to Zappacosta’s “Nothing Can Stand in Your Way”
…….. I attended my cousin’s grade 12 graduation in 1987 at a High School in rural Saskatchewan. Every graduating class has a theme song intended as an inspirational class send off.
One of the graduates sang the chosen theme song “Nothing Can Stand in Your Way”. I was familiar with the song however that night the lyrics resonated with me in a difference way. The next day I went straight to “The Bay’s” music department and bought the cassette tape. Glad those tapes were tough enough to make it through the first week of rewinding to cue up my new favorite song.
Over the next 35 years, it would continue to pop into mind bringing me inspiration when I needed a boost. The power in his voice was convincing me that I can get through anything…” push through” I’d hear him sing – Nothing can stand in your way…
….Save that thought…..and zoom ahead 35 years……
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was going through an intense divorce. Although he knew leaving was the only resolution, he not only felt profound sadness, but he also felt intense guilt.
His story inspired me to write “About that Broken Heart” a writing intended to provide comfort to him and at the same time diarize my experience with broken hearts.
While I won’t include “About that Broken Heart” chapter in its entirety because, well, that would be silly, not to mention confusing….however here is the part related to how Zappacosta’s musical brilliance changed…..…… everything……
“I’ve broken lots of hearts in my time….and I’ve had my heart broken so many times I’m surprised it’s still beating! But really, here’s the deal - Stories are full of hearts broken by love, but it’s not love that breaks the heart - what really breaks a heart is taking away its dream -- whatever that dream might be.”
As I finished writing the chapter, the song came into my ear like a musical punctuation, and I simply wrote…..
Cue Zappacosta – Nothing Can Stand in Your Way
There was something different about watching his video that day – and who knows maybe I had never watched the actual video – The slow and calculated way he walks up to the microphone was not the action of a man who’s about to tell someone to rise up and boldly go on …….. then I heard it….I heard his words as if for the first time…..
“You’ve taken all the chances, hoping everything works out right.”
“So much for romances….I won’t be holding you every night”
But I’m glad you’ve got it all figured out if leaving me is part of it. Don’t leave with any doubt.”
Wait, what did he just say…..”I won’t be holding you every night”….WHAT….
I listened and relistened; I watched and rewatched, I could see it in all the small gestures , I could hear it in the powerful emotion in his voice.
Then and only then was I sure of what I was hearing and wondered how I had missed it for so many years. My heart was confused and sad at the same time.
He is saying goodbye to the love of his life. He’s breaking his own heart to let her go and follow her own dreams.
“You’ve packed up all the memories everything you need to get by
Things you’ve seen in your dreams makes you believe it’s all worth a try.”
I really wondered what level of selflessness it takes to offer someone else respect and grace all while he’s breaking his own heart and letting her go to follow a dream that doesn’t include him
More specifically, the question was really asking myself, could I be that person? If it was me, could I offer an exit ramp lined with understanding, respect and grace?
In my experience, the ending of any relationship challenges my ability to remain true to my personal integrity. Really challenges integrity, how could it not, broken hearts can be very unpredictable, not to mention it hurts! However, that is exactly who the person is I hear in this song. A person that is aligned with personal integrity, respect and love of self that is grounded in grace and compassion….
Not gonna lie, some days I don’t want to be the bigger person I want to poke the bear right freaking back……however in those times when even a speck of doubt to remain in my personal integrity surfaces, I only need to witness the strength and power that Zappacosta expounds in this beautiful ballad and I know that I’ll choose integrity every time knowing that while it seems unimaginable to purposely choose heart break and pain it is teaching me to reach for more ….reach for more of myself in the strength that comes from honouring heart break and becoming stronger through choice.
I don’t know about you but for me the emotions of trying to hang onto someone who through their words or behaviour say they are no longer invested in an “us”, feels like a slow burn, that turns into a scorch, the kind that dims and dashes hopes and dreams……
Making it practically impossible to see another choice, the other path, that will take us to our dream while we let them go to theirs.
The dream that we may have kept hidden waiting for someone’s approval or permission to follow.
So then we write our own permission slip to head out after that dream. What the hell pack yourself a picnic basket too and know without a doubt that…….Nothing Can Stand in Your Way…..Absolutely Nothing!
……on February 16, 2024 and after 37 years of listening to Nothing Can Stand in Your Way…..I not only attended his concert I met him in person!