Feeling Good - Nina Simone

Hello Everybody ! I hope you are well  today and loving life! I've been wondering which song to tackle next in the blog and haven't posted for nearly a month because none of the potential candidates were really grabbing me. I wasn't really feeling the love with any of them. Anyway I heard Feeling Good come through my iPhone this morning and knew straight away that it would be the topic of my next post!

Like a couple of the other songs we've discussed on the blog this song is so well known and so much part of our musical cultural heritage that I've been guilty of not really listening to the lyrics. I've heard them but never really listened properly. There have been so many versions in recent years from Muse, to Buble, to various X-Factor protagonists that I can't remember the last time I really listened to the seminal (if not original) 1965 Nina Simone version. Whichever version you like best though - these are the amazing lyrics:

Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel.

It's a new dawn, It's a new day, It's a new life for me yeahIt's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me 
And I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea you know how I feel
River running free you know how I feel
Blossom on the tree you know how I feel

It's a new dawn, It's a new day, It's a new life for me
And I'm feeling good

Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know
Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when day is done that's what I mean
And this old world is a new world
And a bold world for me

Stars when you shine you know how I feel
Scent of the pine you know how I feel
Oh freedom is mine
And I know how I feel

It's a new dawn, It's a new day, It's a new life for meAnd I'm feeling good

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The format is super simple verse / chorus / verse / chorus and the message in the lyrics that stands out to me is the connection that we can feel to all aspects of our reality, through all our senses. The fish, the river that the fish are in, and the blossom on the tree next to the river all know how I feel. They are not separate from me  - but intimately connected. 

The dragonfly out in the sun, and the butterflies having fun know how to live life and have much to teach us. Act natural and don't get too stressed! And when its time to sleep - sleep in peace without a care in the world.

The chorus takes up this theme that everyday is a new day, with a new dawn and an opportunity for a new life for every one of us. 

Even the stars shining know how I feel, the scent of the pine too. I love the way the lyrics appeal to our different senses here: feeling, sight, smell, touch. And then - not only do all aspects of reality know how I feel, but through my experiences of reality I know how I feel - and I'm feeling good.

Its a truly beautiful message. We are instrinsically connected with nature - not separate from it. The universe cradles us, understands us and can even sympathise with how we feel. This overwhelming feeling of cosmic consciousness and shared experience is one that has recurred time and time again to people of all cultures through all time.

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper" W.B. Yeats

"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here, and you are out there" Yasutani Roshi

"To drop into being means to recognise your interconnectedness with all life, and with being itself. Your very nature is being part of larger and larger spheres of wholeness" Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better" Albert Einstein

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin" William Shakespeare

"Earth laughs in flowers" Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Enjoy today and remember you have another chance tomorrow !