“Runaway,” by Kylie V, is a song that comes from a deeply sensitive heart, for whom – because love and a relationship is so precious, and they care so much for their first love – contemplating and preparing for all the negative possibilities of the end of that relationship also feels like an enormous burden.

The beauty of Kylie V’s voice, and the loveliness of the melody, feels like a spring morning where there is a sunrise lifting a mist, the grass is soaked with dew, and you have the time to savour a cup of coffee, and it should all feel magical, but you feel a weight within you.

The brilliance of that morning is there, and you know it. You feel almost a responsibility to acknowledge the beauty of that moment. You have a sense that experience of that particular morning is something important, and you have a human obligation to drink it in. And yet, knowing all that is part of what syphons away the joy of the moment.

Sure, you still taste the coffee. But you feel the caffeine join with and accelerate the churning within you.

What if I feel stupid for falling in love with you?

What if I regret it and you leave me with a gaping wound?

What if our first picture feels like salt within the mixture

Blood and fixtures of our muscles torn apart

What if when it ends we are still friends and it takes

All that’s in my power not to break your heart

For all the “love is a many-splendored thing” noise that we feel when in the first throes of a relationship, it sure gets weighty when we start to feel how it matters. You get a sense in these first lyrics, of a real questioning – not entirely of the relationship itself, but of their personal capacity to deal with the relationship. As soon as another person enters our emotional paradigm, any confident self-assurance we may have can get called into question.

So yeah, chances are that feeling stupid is going to be part of it. If I’m the only consideration when it comes to choosing an activity, or a restaurant, or even a meal, it can be fairly easy. When there’s someone else, though – particularly a cherished someone else – there’s added complexity.

The more important a relationship, the more difficult a potential loss. You come to a new understanding of your own emotional fragility, and also of your own power to have an impact on another. When there’s someone else, what you do comes to matter more than when it’s just you. And when we start to understand our own emotional impact on other’s, it’s natural to question the extent to which we can handle wielding it. It’s a daunting consideration.

It can make a person want to run away. To be a runaway.

What if I

Run away (I don’t wanna)

What if I run away too soon?

In the face of their own vulnerability, and also – paradoxically – their own power, Kylie V comes around to a renewed appreciation of the possibilities of love. It’s a struggle that a person who experiences anxiety may have often, but it’s a struggle that arises out of a deep sense of concern and consideration for everyone, and an awareness of the great complexities of the human experience.

A side note – while our friends who experience anxiety may cause us some concern, because of the extent and intensity of the spirals of emotion that they may go through – and we don’t wish that level of internal torment on anyone – we can also acknowledge the great gift of their friendship, and be grateful to be included in relationship with someone who cares so deeply about us and about the world around them.

Folks who experience depth of feeling in this way often tend to be coming from a place of deep compassion and concern, and while we want to support them, help them to experience greater peace, and help them know reassurance, we can also treasure their deep intention.

Maybe it’ll all work out and you’re the one I sing about

For years to come and none of it will hurt

Maybe in a couple years we will have worked through all our fears

And we can sit in silence like we were

Cause lover you’re my favourite and I’d

Love it if we made it and I

Think that we could do it if we tried

Cause I think you were meant for me and I was meant for you, you see

So maybe we could stand the test of time

There are many good reasons to listen to “Runaway,” even without hearing the lyrics. But maybe one good reason could be to hear and understand the heart of a person who worries, and who worries because they care. Maybe it’s a way to comprehend that you are loved, and also that you love as well.