My friend, my best friend, has a sick baby. Scary, ICU, baby can’t breathe, no one understands what’s wrong kind of sick. Intubation, sepsis, unknown virus, life-threatening sick.

And when your best friend’s baby girl is very sick, many things seem suddenly petty and trite. And at the same time, it’s absolutely inappropriate to start blathering profound jibber-jabber about life and death or things that are for the best or God’s plan and don’t worry because everything is going to be alright in the end, I promise.

No. Not when it’s your best friend’s baby. You don’t have the right to say such things.

The song is up there for a reason. It’s a celebration of life. It’s a anthem of joy and promise and hope and all the goodness that the world holds for us lucky enough to live in it. Wake up, it says. You’re alive. Wake up. Stop with the excuses and whining and self-pity and drop that nonsense like there’s no tomorrow. Wake. Up.

Listen to the song again. This story isn’t over. Her story isn’t over. Neither is yours. Wake up.