Trembling With Love

When I saw the prompts for Day Three and Four of Bee’s Love Is In Da Blog, two songs came to mind instantly, and both made me feel a little trembly for different reasons.

We have so many friends who have been living joyfully in Ukraine for years. Many of them wisely left Ukraine at the end of 2021 when they say armies camped on their borders. But for those who stayed, we were horrified about the potential dangers and the anxiety they were likely to be experiencing.

Many of our friends in Poland and Romania worked tirelessly last February and March as thousands of Ukrainians fled the violence. I was so proud to see one of the charities we work caught unwittingly on camera by the BBC. I was watching a news-reporter describing he scale of the challenge to help those who had crossed borders…and there in the background were some friends of ours around a huge familiar sign, and there were about fifty people hugging and passing over blankets and food and water being shared.

Even right here in London in my role for the NHS, I have met many people who have come to London during the past year and have wanted to give them extra time, extra attention, extra consideration. The scale of upheaval…is has been horrible to see the events of the past year unfold.

I picked a song that is not specifically mentioning violence….but it does grasp the desire for people to work together, to help each other. I find it very moving…and of course…you may recognize that I am featuring Birdy’s version of this track (yes, I really like Birdy’s sound).

A LOVE SONG FOR UKRAINE AND ALL OTHER COUNTRIES TROUBLED BY VIOLENCE

For Day Four, Bee asked us to share something personal to our own relationships. There are a handful of love-songs that are special to Jack and myself. But I picked one that makes me trembly.

During the height of our challenges…there were a handful of hugely emotional letters exchanged between Jack and I. Have you ever had that feeling of shaking with the overwhelming feelings of love and the powerful effect they are having on you.

I just love what thus track from Olly Murs captures – it is intense at times – and it was so intense back then. It was tearing me up…and I know Jack has said he was paralysed by that stage of our life. The other day, I mentioned how it feels that Goldfinch is 10,100 miles away. Well…whenever I hear this song, I think of the situation between Jack and I when only two or three inches of plasterboard separated our bedrooms – and yet it was as if a vast chasm, impossible to cross, kept us apart.

A LOVE SONG SPECIFIC TO YOU AND YOUR SPOUSE