Therapy this morning. Coming out of the cloudy blue-grey of a rough week politically and personally, needing a heaping dose of women in music songs to light me up, ready to fight, to breathe, to exist, and to do something in lieu of all the heartbreak and bad news, and disappointment in the government, in my emotional state of late, and all the challenges that keep evolving. I need Godzilla-size songs and strength to take this week on. As a friend shared recently, “hot girl summer has become riot girl summer” and I need that fucking soundtrack right now.

Ani DiFranco’s 1998 album, Little Plastic Castle, was my intro to Ani. The first album I owned of hers. The first set of songs I fell in love with. Every song on this album takes me back to a story, to a memory, to a time in my life where I was struggling and growing and changing, and yes, fighting. I’ve gone on to love many more albums, and songs, of Ani’s – her music forever a part of my forever soundtrack. But this album will always hold a special place in my music-obsessive heart and this song, track two on the album, “Fuel”, well, it just hits perfectly today. I mean, honestly, it always has hit perfectly.

This last bit…this last refrain…is what I most needed today.