Search for the hero: a song to make your heart sing

Wouldn't it be great to have a compilation of all the songs that were guaranteed to lift your spirits?  Well that's the project that Hilda Carroll at Living Out Loud has kicked off, looking for the songs that recharge your energy, lift your spirits and make your heart sing.  Her idea is to:

ask others what their number one energy-raising song of choice would be, and compile the lot into the ultimate spirit-lifting play list!

She's only looking for one song which makes the task easier and more difficult at the same time... My first choice might well have been 'Shine' but that's got Hilda's vote so I had to think again.  There's other music that fires my spirit - like the soundtrack to 'Last of the Mohicans' - but for music and lyrics I'm going to plump for M People's 'Search for the Hero'.

As you'll see from the lyrics the song is a fantastic reminder of the power within.  Being a hero isn't about success and achievement, about wealth and prosperity.  It's about the way you choose to deal with the stuff that happens to you.  The choices we make, each and every day, to shape and define the narratives of our lives.  And the decision, whatever happens, to keep on looking up, to keep on aiming high.

In this life, long and hard though it may seem,
Live it as you’d live a dream.
Aim so high.
Just keep the flame of truth burning bright.
The missing treasure you must find
Because you and only you alone
Can build a bridge across the stream.

I can hear it in my head as I type these lyrics but if you want to hear it 'out loud' you'll get a snippet by clicking the button below.

That's mine - what's yours?  I'm tagging three bloggers, Emma at How to Italy, Nick at Life 2.0 and Adam at Monk At Work but consider yourself invited if you want to add to the playlist.

The rules are simple,

1. Post about the one song that makes your heart sing, and uplifts your spirit every time you hear it.  If you can provide a link to lyrics and/or audio that would be fabulous.  But it's not essential, so don't worry about it if you can't.

2.  Include a trackback to both this and Hilda's original post

3.  Feel free to tag three others or invite contributions and ask them to include a trackback to your post and Hilda's when they post.

Comments

[Nick]

'Search for the hero' is such a beautiful song.

There's so much good music it's not so simple to just pick one... but I will... soon.

Thanks Joanna

[your wiki guide]

there are actually several songs that really uplift my heart and soul. depending on the mood and the situation, I would always have the same song in my list. I'll try to come up with the best one and ping you back in case...

Thanks, anyway!

[Emma Bird]

I love Search for the Hero, too.

Thanks for tagging me to play. It was a hard choice coming up with my favourites.

[Adam Kayce : Monk At Work]

Hi Joanna,

Got it — you should have a trackback to my reply any moment now... :-)

[Shawn Murphey]

Hello Joanna! Just yesterday I was having a discussion with Adam from Monk at Work about having seen (and heard) "Last of the Mohicans" over the weekend and how moved I feel hearing the music - especially Promontory. When I posted to his blog, he wrote that you had Last of the Mohicans as a favorite, too. Had to check you out to see who else had such extraordinary taste!

[Joanna Young]

Hi Shawn, isn't it great how blogging allows us to make connections like this!

Last of the Mohicans is such an amazing soundtrack isn't it? Kind of hard to track down (from the UK at any rate) but well worth the hunt. It makes my spine tingle even thinking about it.

Joanna

[Hilda]

Hi Joanna,

What a great choice! Thanks so much for playing along. I'm only back from holidays a couple of days, and still have all the other tracks to check out, but will let you know when the compilation is complete.

all the best,

H.

[Joanna Young]

Hi Hilda, it was my pleasure. I've been enjoying following some of the other contributions too.

Best wishes with the compilation - I think it'll take you a while!

Joanna