Heartbroken Joy

I just don't know what to say...  I am absolutely heartbroken that we have lost her, her voice, her powerful, truthful, warrior, delicate voice... And yet there is so much joy that she was with us, that she gave us her music, her words and all of it.

Sinead O'Connor was the first musician to really make me think about lyrics, to acknowledge the power music has to move the needle, change minds and spark conversation and dissent as a fundamental and necessary reality,

I read her autobiography, "Rememberings", back in 2021 within a couple of weeks of its publication, and despite having been a dyed-in-the-wool fan for 30 years I wept, I mean I actually cried, for the suffering she endured throughout her life of which I had no prior clue, and for the absolute joy that she found in her art and her journey and her faith and her family and her friends.

I always truly felt love for her, the kind of love that atheists such as I am are sometimes a bit sniffy about. Spiritual, platonic love founded in respect and genuine care, and while I never knew her, never met her, her work and her writing spoke volumes to me about the love she felt for us, all of us, not just her fans.

I feel as though she was a once in a generation person, I mean that in a way that transcends her talents and her work, while still accounting for those things and being entirely thankful for them.

We are fewer, we have lost an absolute giant, and I am heartbroken, and at the same time I am so filled with joy because of her, so incredibly thankful for her.

Rest in Power, Rest in Peace.
Thank You Sinead, for the music, the love and well, everything.