A few months ago, I posted a blog post telling all tens (of thousands!) of you about my dear and incredibly talented friend, Shellee Coley, and how you could be a part of her upcoming album. Well that time has come friends and she’s about to release her much anticipated, first full-length album. In honor of this momentous occasion, she’s taking a little blog tour. Shellee’s asked various folks to blog about each song on her upcoming album and their connection to the song — I feel SO honored! I love all of the songs on Shellee’s album, but felt like I had to write about the song – “Home to You” because I can relate on so many levels to the lyrics and emotions of the song.
For those of you new to me and my blog -Welcome! Let me quickly fill you in about our life over the past two years. About this time two years ago, my husband and I made the right, but difficult decision to really start pursuing a life closer to our families sprinkled throughout the Southeast and all equally 15+ hours away from our then current home in Texas. This is something we’d dreamed about, fought about, and cried about for several years until we were finally on the same page and started taking some definite steps to make this happen. We knew going into it there’d be sacrifices, some we were prepared and others we were not prepared to make. Going into this transition, I’d mentally prepared myself to leave Texas by the end of 2010. JT applied for a position that we thought was a shot in the dark with a job application that turned into a start date in Charlotte, NC in six weeks. I was NOT prepared to leave my framily (friends that become family) and our life and little house in Texas.
Over the next year, there were so many more downs than ups in a rollercoaster ride of having two “homes” and leaving one life to start another in a town full of strangers. There were so many moments of doubt, struggle, frustration, and loneliness. The stress and emotions of so much transition has finally started to wane as we’ve settled into a new set of rhythms and relationships in Charlotte. There’s now much more clarity and gratitude to the lessons learned during this crazy time in our life. My dad always refers to those tough times that you’d initially choose not to go through as “character building” times. It’s those tough lessons and difficult times that bend and shape us into the people we’re becoming.
Shellee’s song “Home to You” resonates so deeply with my soul. Shellee captures the purest essence of the word and meaning of “home”. For me, home is the love and memories made within our four walls, but not just limited to or defined by a physical place. Through transitional times of living, I’ve learned that home really isn’t about the four walls that surround you or where you lay your head at night. It’s about the people and family that surround you and hold your heart and memories. There were so many times where we didn’t know where we headed, but we always ended up finding ourselves at home with each other.
To hear an audio clip of the Shellee’s story behind the song and to stream it, visit her website by clicking here.
