there's orange juice in the kitchen👨🏽🍳
a song on addiction to alcohol, recovery, and the crooked journey to healing that is often ignored
I just stumbled on Noah Kahan's body of work through a few substack pals and . On his album, Stick Season, they recommended I listen to Orange Juice.
I wish I didn't because tell me why I'm out here at 1 am trying to dissect the lyrics of this song. I’ll be reflecting on only the first verse of the song.
Before you read, keep in mind these were the images I saw as I read the lyrics. This perspective is completely different from the author’s origin story of the song.
Enjoy!
In the first half of the song, I see how a spouse is yearning for his partner to come back home. Apparently, she left unexpectedly, leaving the kids to be stuck with their dad.
She shockingly shows up at the house. The husband immediately lets her know she's safe here:
“…And no one will tempt you.”.
He follows it up by addressing the elephant in the room.
“…We know you got sober”
I'm not sure I would have liked to say that, but part of being sober is openly being accountable to those who care about you, right?
Bonus points for him on that one. 👍🏽
My favourite part of the song is where he offers a touch of hospitality to make her feel at home:
“there's orange juice in the kitchen.”
He had initially bought it for the kids, but he assured her she could have it.
[Hopefully, he offered that orange juice with some ice cubes to go with it.]
Even though he had every reason to get upset and let that dictate his interaction with her. Yet it was nothing but love. So much so that he didn't make her feel she was compelled to do anything in return. Not even come back to the house. It's evident in his statement:
“We're just glad you could visit.”
There's more to the song, and I really hope you listen to it after reading this.
It highlights a compassionate view of recovery. Showing that healing isn't a straight line but is filled with ups, downs, ups, downs, downs and ups.
If you're battling alcohol addiction, drug addiction, or any addiction in this season, I see you. And I hope that this piece serves as the orange juice in the kitchen for you.
Self-reflection:
When my aunty left my LATE uncle with 3 kids and just disappeared. Without a trace. she resurfaced after a couple of months. That’s the place in memory the first verse of the song took me to. 😮💨😮💨😮💨
Link to the song below:
First glance at the title and my brain retitled it to "there's food at home" and I heard that title being read in my mother's voice.
Reading the post through tho, I am now curious about the song and artist.
I loooveee Noah Kahan! And orange juice is definitely one of my favorite songs!!! Thank you for writing this! 💕