You know a song is powerful when the chills overcome your entire body, and your soul feels as if it is drawn into the music, and for those few minutes, you can escape the world and feel again.
Some of my most life changing realizations have happened while listening to music. I believe this is because music is a language spoken to the heart, and as such, can touch any soul who hears it.
Music has a way to express what conversational words cannot, and for me this violin and piano cover of 7 Years by Rob Landes and Chris McKiggan expresses so beautifully emotions that I feel in which the words I say are not sufficient enough to describe.
Rob Landes is an award-winning violinist from Orem, Utah. Rob started playing the violin at the age of 3 and has not been able put it down since. Through hard work and practice, Rob accelerated quickly and soon found himself performing in Hollywood, on Disney Channel, and in Europe while touring with Brigham Young University’s Chamber Orchestra.
When you are told that practice makes perfect, listen, because it is absolutely true. Nothing in life comes natural and easy, yet by striving and working for what we want, we can achieve anything, even the seemingly impossible. I do not think that at age 12 Rob saw himself touring Europe, playing in front of hundreds of people, or being as amazing and famous as he is now. That’s what is so incredible about life and time, the hard work will pay off and the results of our efforts will all show in time.
7 Years is a song composed and sang by Lukas Graham. I first heard this song in November of 2015 during a hard time in my life.
I was struggling with an array of emotional and mental health challenges during this time and wasn’t sure what life really meant to me anymore or what it was about. This song started playing on the radio as I was driving in my car up Provo Canyon one day, and as I listened to it I felt purpose again and an internal calming amidst all the anxiety, depression, and mental suffering I was dealing with. This song is one of the many songs I contribute to helping to find solace in the storms of life.
Rob Landes cover is an instrumental version of the song, and the feelings and chills I got when first hearing this cover were so strong that I listened to it probably 20 more times in a row after that. Knowing the lyrics of the song, of course, helped me to feel this way.
7 Years starts off with, “Once I was seven years old my momma told me go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely, once I was seven years old.” The song continues, “It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger, pushing each other to the limits we were learning quicker… I always had that dream like my daddy before me so I started writing songs I started writing stories, something about that glory always seemed to bore me, cause only those I really love will ever really know me.”
The song goes from 7 years old, to 11 even years old, to 20, to 30, then to 60 years old. Finally at the end of this composition, it goes back to saying, “Once I was seven years old, my momma told me go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely, once I was seven years old. Once I was seven years old.”
I absolutely love the way that this song takes us on a journey through this man’s life, things he experienced, things he learned, things that were hard and difficult and also things that brought him happiness and peace. From every experience in life, he learned something, just as each of us will. The song closes by expressing the same verse heard at the beginning. The symbolism of this is so powerful to a listener, and for me, made me really rethink life and its purpose, and what it means to me as an individual.
Each of us has our own journey ahead, and at the end of life, what will truly matter to us? What will we have learned and experienced? What will we bring with us into the eternities? Once I was 7 years old.
If any of you have your own personal struggles or stories that you would be willing to share, please feel safe to comment here. Sharing your stories- just as Lukas Graham shared his story through this song and Rob and Chris were able to recreate the feeling of this story in their instrumental cover- strengthens people’s lives and lets us all know, we are not alone. You are not alone.
