One of the topics that we discuss in the Lines In The Sand course is the importance of self-respect and self-love. I have come to know that the best way to honor and love others is to honor and love yourself first. This weekend as I was at the barn pulling weeds and raking leaves, (yes, a girl has to keep her land in good order) a song that I haven’t heard in years came on the radio. You know the song, it is I Want To Know What Love Is by Foreigner. It was the band’s all-time mega hit written by the guitarist, Mick Jones.
Something Bigger Than Myself
I have always liked the song and since it hadn’t come across my music listening plate for so long I heeded the words with precise attention. There is something about the rugged grittiness of the lyrics that appeal to my earthy appreciation of something bigger than myself. As I listened to the song I noticed that I was hearing the words with a new perspective. I heard it as a conversation with myself — regarding self-love, or my own love for me. These are the course lyrics: “Let’s talk about love. I wanna know what love is, the love that you feel inside. I want you to show me, and I’m feeling so much love. I wanna feel what love is, no, you can’t just hide. I know you can show me.” For me, epiphanies have always been striking occurrences that happen at unexpected times and come from unlikely sources. It seemed to me that the song was inviting me to know and accept love from myself. To realize the certainty that love is ever present and available to and from me. That we can run but not hide from the fact that we must embrace self-love in order to know and love others.
I was so taken with the revelation of what the words in this song stirred up in me that wondered if there was a story behind the lyrics. I did some research and I found an interview that Mick Jones did with Classic Rock Magazine. Here is what Jones says this about the song, “I Want To Know What Love Is came up at three in the morning sometime in 1984, I don’t know where it came from. I consider it a gift that was sent through me. I think there was something bigger than me behind it. I’d say it was written entirely by a higher force.” The release of I Want To Know What Love Is, at the end of 1984, confirmed that, for better or worse, this most personal of late-night confessionals had struck a universal chord. “It was No.1 worldwide,” Jones says, “and I doubt there are many people who haven’t heard it. It was played on the radio all around the world. And I started getting letters from people who weren’t necessarily fans but had found comfort in that song at times of suffering and sadness. Everybody took their own meaning from it. And that’s all you can hope for as a writer.”
And that is exactly what I did. I felt like I had listened to the song hundreds of times, but that day at my barn I heard it for the first time, encouraging me to examine my self-love. I have included the lyrics below as well as a link to the Farm Aid performance of the song for you. I don’t know what meaning you will get from it, but at the very least, please get to know yourself and never stop loving yourself.
I Want To Know What Love Is (Lyrics)
by Foreigner
I gotta take a little time
A little time to think things over
I better read between the lines
In case I need it when I’m older
Now this mountain I must climb
Feels like a world upon my shoulders
I through the clouds I see love shine
It keeps me warm as life grows colder
In my life there’s been heartache and pain
I don’t know if I can face it again
Can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far
To change this lonely life
I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me
I’m gonna take a little time
A little time to look around me
I’ve got nowhere left to hide
It looks like love has finally found me
In my life there’s been heartache and pain
I don’t know if I can face it again
I can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far
To change this lonely life
I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me
I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
And I wanna feel, I want to feel what love is
And I know, I know you can show me
Let’s talk about love
I wanna know what love is, the love that you feel inside
I want you to show me, and I’m feeling so much love
I wanna feel what love is, no, you just cannot hide
I know you can show me, yeah
I wanna know what love is, let’s talk about love
I want you to show me, I wanna feel it too
I wanna feel what love is, I want to feel it too
And I know and I know, I know you can show me
Show me love is real, yeah
I wanna know what love is…
Take a few minutes today to explore and evaluate your current self-respect and self-love.
How do you plan to improve this essential state of being in yourself? Comment below so we can find strength and encouragement together!
Stay true and be you —
Annie