The night before my marriage to Sweety in July 2009, I was listening to songs over the computer speakers. I was listening to music I thought would nudge my inspiration to write the words she’d read in a card the afternoon before our ceremony: what I was feeling about our life together going into the future.
Today’s song came on and I immediately started writing. I replayed it numerous times while I was continuing to weave together the things I wanted to tell her about how I was feeling about our future together and how excited I was for it.
Logically speaking, we had lived together for almost 11 years already so not a lot was changing from a practical perspective, but this marriage thing still made a difference to us both, and it was one of the happiest occasions we have shared between us and with family and friends.
“Chasing Cars” is a beautiful love song; the singer is completely vulnerable in telling his love how much he wants to be with her, just the two of them together:
“We’ll do it all
Everything
On our own
We don’t need
Anything
Or anyone
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
I don’t quite know
How to say
How I feel
Those three words
Are said too much
They’re not enough
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into life
Let’s waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into life
All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see
I don’t know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?”
(“Chasing Cars,” by Nathan Connolly, Gary Lightbody)
Whenever I hear the song I think back to that night of anticipation, hope, love and longing, and am grateful for every moment, every joy, every sorrow, every disappointment and all the memories we’ve made together.
We heard Snow Patrol play this song live at the Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends concert that Snow Patrol and Howling Bells supported in Winnipeg, Canada, just over a month before our wedding. I bought “Chasing Cars” a couple of weeks later. Seems the song was destined to travel along with us on our journey.
Now you know a little about why this is my song of the day for today. Thanks for joining me here, and please enjoy.
Here’s the official UK video from the Snow Patrol YouTube channel:
