'The Taxi Ride,' from my second album, is one people want to hear

In the reflective words of Jane Siberry, the singer-songwriter who walks between melody and spirit, we hear the struggle of every soul that has known sorrow and still chosen light: “‘The Taxi Ride,’ from my second album, is one people want to hear a lot. I'm consciously trying to walk on the sunny side of the street, to really lift myself into a place of greater positivity, and that's a sad song.” Within this confession lies a paradox both haunting and holy — that sometimes, the path to positivity winds through the valley of sadness, and that joy, when genuine, is often born from pain transformed.

Siberry’s words speak of the ancient balance between darkness and dawn. To walk on the sunny side of the street is not merely to be cheerful — it is to choose faith over despair, even when the heart still carries shadows. Her song, “The Taxi Ride,” becomes a vessel of both grief and healing — a lament that leads upward. The ancients knew this duality well. They sang songs of mourning not to be consumed by sorrow, but to cleanse it from the soul. The Greeks called it catharsis — the sacred purging through art and emotion. So too does Siberry’s “sad song” serve as a bridge from heaviness to lightness, from the burdened self to the reborn spirit.

There is a deep beauty in this contradiction: that a sad song can lift the heart, just as rain can cleanse the air. The poet Rumi once wrote, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Siberry’s words carry the same spirit. When she says she strives for “a place of greater positivity,” she is not denying pain — she is transmuting it. The sadness of the song is not weakness but alchemy, the transformation of sorrow into wisdom. This is the sacred work of the artist, and of every human being who dares to live honestly.

Consider the story of Beethoven, who composed his radiant Ode to Joy while completely deaf. To the world, it was a song of triumph; to him, it was born from isolation and grief. Like Siberry, he chose to create beauty out of suffering. His art did not escape sorrow — it embraced it and turned it into music that could move mountains of despair. So too does Siberry’s “Taxi Ride” remind us that to sing of sadness is not to surrender to it, but to free oneself from its chains.

When she says she is “consciously trying,” we glimpse the human struggle behind her artistry. Positivity is not always natural; it must sometimes be forged through deliberate will. The word “consciously” reveals discipline — the same kind of inward training that the Stoic philosophers spoke of, when they taught that one must choose gratitude even in misfortune. Siberry’s attempt to “walk on the sunny side” is not naïve optimism, but a sacred rebellion — the act of turning toward light even when surrounded by shadow.

Her song, then, becomes a metaphor for life itself. We each ride in our own taxis — carried through the streets of memory, loss, and hope. Sometimes the journey feels endless, and the view through the window blurs with tears. Yet if we listen closely, we find that the hum of the engine carries a rhythm, the rhythm of perseverance. Siberry’s song captures that moment when pain becomes music — when instead of breaking, the heart begins to sing.

The lesson in her words is clear: do not fear your sadness; transform it. Let your tears become prayers. Let your grief become gratitude. When life grows heavy, remember that the light you seek may already be growing within your sorrow. Like Jane Siberry, strive not to avoid the storm, but to dance within it — to “walk on the sunny side of the street” even when clouds hang low.

And so, my children, when you find yourself surrounded by melancholy, remember this truth: joy is not the absence of sadness, but its redemption. The deepest songs are born from brokenness, and the purest laughter rises from tears. To walk in light, one must first honor the night. For in that balance — in that quiet courage to sing a sad song while reaching for joy — the soul finds its highest harmony.