Universal Offering

Before you read this: Imagine a bus going through a city at night. It's raining, and the windshield wipers are wiping away. A man on the bus feels desolate, lost in his own thoughts. Another man smiles friendly on him, but all our friend sees in his encouraging smile is an understanding of how the world is a bad place.

This song is about how for each and every one of us, there is a choice in any moment, on how we will perceive the world, and how in consequence the world will react back to us. It's a choice granted to us by the universe, and it's granted to everyone in the same way. Enjoy! :)

And that sad smile thrown at you in passing

That you took for a sure sign of the universality of suffering

So you shy away from yet another offering

As you did for way too often

It all comes down to one decision

Will you zoom into and focus on the suffering position

Or will you break the chains of perceived fate

And accept the universal offering

Lead on, friend, through and beyond the suffering

Accept, walk and teach your path to whoever may listen

Welcome into your life the choice found in universal offering

Of joy and richness and love and no more suffering

And who are you anyway, ain’t you nothing but potential

To use, to lose, to accept or forfeit by the meek

And the strength you seek, it doesn’t depend on any numbers

It’s a decision you make or forsake, so when you will you dare to choose?

But your friend here is stuck in a really bad position

Will you make it worse by joining with his suffering decision

But your father, he’s carrying a heavy, heavy load

Will it really help him carry it, if you pity him, all along his road…

But then they’ll blame you for the pain you have supposedly inflicted

Show the true source of their pain, don’t allow them to convict you

Left your friend out, all alone in the rain

He may have wanted to stay there, to wash out his pain

While you went on to make sure that when he’s ready to come home to compassion

There’ll be someone waiting for him there to dry his tears

And help him move on

Lead on, friend, and don’t you depend on permission

(No you won’t need it)

To take that first step and show us your truth as it is

(Show us your truth)

Ain’t it time for the world to receive the beauty that’s within you

(Don’t you know that you’re beautiful)

The stage is all set, why don’t you step up and play

(And sing your own song)

There’s a world to be founded, a choice to be explored undaunted

(So fear not)

And a truth to be lived, ain’t it what we have always wanted

(Have another go at it)

And a truth to be lived, ain’t it what we have always wanted

Backstory of this song

Have you ever met someone who from the outside seems perfectly free to choose a different path that fits him or her better, but just won't? And if you then try to show that different path to that person, they find all sorts of reasons why this path is only open to others, or how for some reason they simply cannot walk it.

This song was born out of the frustration with several such people I spent time with. It says loud and clear: "Here's the deal, you really are free to choose how you spend your day, your week, your life. The universe basically hands you this freedom, for free. And no, you're not excluded from that offer. So you might want to consider using it" :D