Now Playing
Song: “Where the Streets Have No Name”
Artist: U2
Watch, then come back.
I want to run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls that hold me inside
I wanna reach out and touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I’ve always loved this song, but as I’ve gotten older, its meaning has changed a bit. Back then, it represented hope for freedom to chase dreams. Now, it’s more about inner peace. After listening to it again recently and reliving some beautiful memories, I realized something. There are things we do because they give us a break or an escape. Then there are things that give something back. We don’t always recognize the difference. Restoration isn’t necessarily rest.
Sometimes rest restores you. Sometimes movement does. Sometimes noise does. Sometimes silence does. Sometimes being around the right people returns something to you. Sometimes being completely, gloriously unreachable does. Sometimes something that looks exactly like self-care from the outside gives you absolutely nothing back. A bubble bath and candles might be heaven for one person and forty-five minutes of wondering when they can get out of the tub for somebody else.
Because restoration isn’t defined by what the activity looks like. It’s defined by what it gives back.
A couple of years ago, I started taking a few days every few months completely to myself. No responsibilities waiting in the next room. No conversations I needed to have. No one needing anything from me. Just silence, solitude, walking, thinking, and whatever I felt like doing with the hours in front of me.
At first, I thought I simply enjoyed being alone. It took going too long without that time for me to understand that something much more important had been happening.
I came back with more patience. More clarity. More room inside my own head. More ability to hear myself underneath all the noise. More of… me. That’s restoration. And yours may look nothing like mine.
Maybe you come back to yourself in a room full of people you love. Maybe it happens while you’re running until your lungs burn, singing at the top of your lungs in the car, working with your hands, sitting beside the ocean, making something, praying, dancing, hiking, laughing, reading, gardening, or standing in the middle of a concert surrounded by thousands of strangers. Maybe the thing that restores you doesn’t look peaceful at all.
The better question might not be, “What helps me relax?” It might be, “What do I come away from with more of myself than I had going in?” More energy. More patience. More curiosity. More creativity. More connection. More hope. More light. Because sometimes relief simply helps us get through the moment. Restoration helps return us to ourselves.
Maybe that’s why those words hit me so hard: “I wanna tear down the walls that hold me inside.” Sometimes we need to step outside the walls for a while. Outside the routine. Outside the expectations. Outside whatever everybody else says should make us feel better. And go looking for the place, the person, the sound, the silence, the movement, the stillness, or the flame that actually gives something back.
Your streets don’t need a name anyone else recognizes. You only need to notice what happens to you when you get there.
What gives something back to you?
