“keep lookin’ up” by Kacey Musgraves
“You never know what you may find / I’ve seen strange things happen all the time.”
In January of this year, I was on a spiritual breakup trip as I took in the beautifully tragic nuances of Kacey Musgraves’ Star-Crossed: Unveiled live tour. Looking back, this album and Musgraves’ Star-Crossed era as a whole became a collection of symbols that stood in for an experience of an archetype of what I thought I wanted: star-crossed love. A year after the album’s debut, ten months after hearing it live, and the exact day where I finally removed myself from an eleven-month on-and-off “star-crossed” connection, Musgraves performs “keep lookin’ up” for the first time.
It’s the song that, I think, if I had heard it live in January, I wouldn’t have thrown myself back into a relationship that wasn’t meant for me. The song is gritty. It’s bare-bones. It’s persevering. It has a small-town rhythm to it, accompanied by hushed, folksy guitar. It’s got lyrics that make my current growth, maturity, and healing journey ahead of me, the most tactile.
“keep lookin’ up” captures the unfathomable shifts and setbacks we all experience only to remind us that one day we can assuage the fears those shifts confronted us with. Our setbacks set us up for greater things. Musgraves’ stripped-back, self-reflective songwriting reminds us that arrival to acceptance comes in the most uncanny ways.
Anyone going through anything can re-emerge from the dark, the tumultuous, the uncertain. You move along with the courage to remain curious and faithful. And, suddenly, what was dark is bright and clear. As simple as that. This is the commitment Musgraves has to healing: bringing everyone who has ever experienced tragedy together through practical wisdom and a big heart.
