… ‘til it bleeds daylight.

Ok. Let me repeat that line again:

“You got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.”

Wow, how powerful is that? I mean, read it and say it a few times to yourself out loud and I think you’ll see what I mean.

This is a lyric from a song by singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, a rather ‘legendary’ Canadian artist. When I first heard that quote, it hit me very hard.. let me tell you a quick story..

One afternoon a while back I was driving in my car and I needed some music, as you sometimes do when you’re in your car for longer than you’d like to be. I had one of those ‘mixed cd’s’ (those ones that your friends make for you when they think they know what you want to hear) in the front seat, so I popped it in to my cd player, mostly just to fill the silence with something other than silence.

After a couple songs went by, a song called “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” came through the speakers. Standard 80’s type of pop song. But then the next verse started and the lyrics were:

“Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight“

Really? Did I just hear that? Wow. Really.. Wow… I actually pulled over and stopped my car on the side of the road, hit the rewind button on the cd player and listened again. Then again, and again..

For some reason that line just hit me like a ton of bricks. Honestly I’m not sure why. Maybe it was just a time in my life that I had to hear something like that. Maybe I was (for some reason) meant to hear something that inspiring at that particular moment.

It’s a very powerful line. I suppose it’s kind of like saying “when life sucks, you just gotta keep trying until somethings happens for you”. But the way it is written, to me it’s more powerful than that.

“Gotta kick at the darkness ‘til it BLEEDS daylight”

Write that one down, folks. It’s about fighting for what you want. It means you have to kick the crap out of the bad place you’re in until it starts getting better. It’s almost violent sounding. Kicking something until it bleeds is a rather violent thing to think about. But when you put it into context with regards to you trying to fight your way out of a ‘dark’ place in your life it becomes an amazingly worded line that can really speak to you on a level that is somehow deeper than your usual train of thought in these situations.

It basically gives me inspiration whenever I need that kind of inspiration. If you want something badly enough, fight for it. Make that darkness bleed from your acts of determination. Keep kicking at it until the light begins to shine through. Make it happen for yourself.

Thanks for letting me share that with you. I’d love it if you let me know what you think, does that line move you?

Have an extraordinary day!