“So, when the journey gets long,
Just know that you are loved,
There is light up above,
And the joy is always enough.
Bubbles up.”

“Bubbles Up”, by Jimmy Buffett

The deaths of celebrities don’t usually have a deep effect on me. I’ll usually say, “Aww…”, discuss some memory I have of their career, and go on about my day. They weren’t really a part of my life in a real sense, so their passing isn’t a real part of my life either.

The death of Jimmy Buffett, however, had an impact on me. I was genuinely melancholy in the days after I heard the news. Not surprisingly, I found myself listening to his music a lot more. He’d always been a heavy portion of my rotation, but I found that, for several weeks, he was my rotation, and many of his songs still bring me down at the same time as they lift me up. After awhile, I half expected Alexa to say, “Yeah, yeah, play Jimmy Buffett,” whenever I called her name.

Then, one day, I was driving and listening to, of course, Jimmy Buffett. I was on my way to take my daughter Lauren to dinner, but that’s kind of peripheral to the story. The point is I was driving while listening to a playlist of his music, when a song I hadn’t heard before came on. It was slow and contemplative and heartfelt. I quickly surmised it was his new song, “Bubbles Up”, part of an album he’d recorded shortly before his death.

The lyrics mirrored the music. They felt like he might have been contemplating the end of his life, leaving a message for his family and other loved ones. As the words washed over me–pun intended–my chest grew tight, a lump grew in my throat, and my vision began to blur a little. When the chorus began, I really started to struggle to see, for I felt the emotions of being a husband and father and wanting to share this beautiful, achingly powerful advice with Sarah and Lauren, especially at that time. Lauren was newly off at college and it was an adjustment for all of us, especially, I think, for Sarah. I could hear her saying something similar to her precious girl. “When the journey gets long, just know that you are loved.” No, Lauren’s not far away, but she’s farther away from her beloved mother for longer than she had ever been in her, admitttedly still short, life, and that was undoubtedly rough on them both. It was vital for Lauren to know, no matter what, she had a home to come back to, but that her home was in our hearts even when she couldn’t get back to our house.

The next line struck multiple emotional notes. When I contemplate the words, “[t]here is light up above”, it reminds me that, even when life is a struggle–or maybe especially when it’s a struggle–if I follow my moral compass, things will eventually turn out okay, even if that eventually is after I die. And it also reminds me I always have the light of God’s love and guidance, in addition to the light of Sarah’s presence in my life. Finally, my heart and mind went back to Lauren, as I became keenly aware of being given the privilege to be a light, with God’s help, for her as she navigates the beginnings of her life as an adult.

I have a tendency to be a bit sardonic about life, with a cynical witticism–or witty cynicism–always at the ready. But the next line was a forceful reminder to embrace joy in life under all circumstances, because the joy really is always enough, even when life is hard. Work not going well? There’s still plenty of joy. Back aching? Joy. Short on money this month? Joy. Struggling to cope with a great sadness in your life? Yes, joy is still there if you let it in, and it’s always enough. Because joy is not about our circumtances. It’s there regardless of the circumstances. We just have to look for it.

The chorus, and eventually the song, end with the simple phrase, “bubbles up.” Good advice, those words, whether you’re a confused scuba diver who has lost orientation and doesn’t know up from down or you’re a confused human being who has lost orientation and is struggling to decide the right thing to do or the right way to live or the right words to say. Folow those bubbles–go back to the basics and live your life based on what you know to be true. Robert Frost gave a similar piece of advice when he said, “…choose something like a star.” Allow something to guide you that’s above and beyond you, something that’s fixed and dependable, when you are neither. For me, that’s God and the Bible.

To that emotional roller coaster, add the gut-wrenchingly steep curve of realizing I’ll never get to hear Jimmy Buffett sing that song–or any song–live again, and I nearly had to pull off the road. I was surprised several weeks later, when I heard the song again, to find the impact was no less powerful. I felt Jimmy saying to all of us who followed him, “[j]ust know that you are loved.” And he was also reminding us all that we need to live in a way that makes it clear to those who are close to us that they never have to question, even when the journey gets long, that they are loved and valued.

Bubbles up to you, Jimmy Buffett, a friend I never met.

Jimmy Buffett . (n.d.). Bubbles up. On Equal strain on all parts. Mac McAnally and Michael Utley.