Breast cancer month. A reminder of the year in which a fresh awareness of mortality pushed me deeper into Life.
When I first heard the song below, originally performed in French by Laurent Pagny, it moved me in a way music seldom does. There was something so universally profound about it that I vowed to translate it and record it myself.
If you’ve ever suffered and found your courage bolstered by someone else’s strength, if you’ve ever been a buttress to a grieving or hurting friend, I hope you’ll hear in this song the sentiments we find so difficult to speak. This is a thank you from all survivors to those who loved and cheered us through. If it wasn’t for you…
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That led from safety to unknown
Under the highs inside the sighs
When all futility’d been sown
Beyond the frenzy to achieve
Beyond the pressure to be known
Through soul fatigue and hope denied
Where shallow dreams withered and groaned
Where most attempt and so few soar
Inside the shame of each defeat
Despite the pain life holds in store
When from the bunker of my faith
I view the weight your kindness bore
I feel the granite of your heart
My fighting strength, my healing’s core
If it wasn’t for you
Like a weight-bearing wall
You the friend strong and true
Ever there, rise or fall
And if not for the power
Of your love cast in stone
Bracing my darkest hour
When I felt most alone
You may tell me that the courage was inside me all along
“What doesn’t kill you makes you strong”
But the saying must be wrong, because…
[Originally recorded by Florent Pagny as “Les Murs Porteurs”]