Born to Fly

OK so here I go, my first blog ever. Why am I blogging you may ask? I dunno, maybe just as a release of all these crazy thoughts that run through my head every day. Maybe by writing I can get some of the clutter out and allow what's left to function with a little better accuracy.

So when people think of me, what do they think of? People who have known me across my 29 years of life would probably say many things, but one thing in common would most definitely be "she sings all the time!!!" Yes, indeed, I love to sing. I don't like music theory, and please don't make me sing in Italian or Latin (Sorry Mrs Williams)...I just want to have fun with it. I'm no professional, just fair at best. But it's a passion. At the age of two I was given a microphone and I haven't turned back since. Music has a way of allowing us to express ourselves. Music, many genres, has influenced my life in so many amazing ways. So I figured if I was going to blog that I should incorporate music...Thus the title of my blog, "Living by the Lyrics..."


I've always been a fan of country music. How could I not, I lived amongst a bunch of rednecks, country folk, barefooted men and women in overalls....ok so maybe it wasn't that bad, but I can definitely relate to the song "Redneck Woman"-of course that's another blog. But this song, Born to Fly, is one that hits close to home, closer than I realized until recently. Here are the lyrics:

Born To Fly (Sara Evans)

I've been tellin' my dreams to the scarecrow
About the places that I'd like to see
I say "Friend, do you think I'll ever get there?"
Oh but he just stands there smiling back at me.
So I confessed my sins to the preacher about the love I'd been prayin' to find.
Is there a brown eyed boy in my future? And he says "Girl, you've got nothin' but time."

But how do you wait for heaven? And who has that much time?
And how do you keep your feet on the ground when you were born to fly?

My daddy he is grounded like the oak tree. My mama she is steady as the sun.
Oh you know I love my folks but I keep staring down the road,
just lookin' for my one chance to run.
Cause I will soar away like the blackbird. I will blow in the wind like a seed. I will plant my heart in the garden of my dreams and I will grow up where I wander wild and free.

But how do you wait for heaven? And who has that much time?
And how do you keep your feet on the ground when you know that you were born to fly.

~

I'm a dreamer. I always have been. I can remember as far back as the sixth grade dreaming about all the places I hoped to see someday, and how desperately I wanted out of KY, out of the familiar.

I had it good growing up. We didn't have a lot of money but we always had enough, and my parents raised me to believe that I was capable of anything I put my mind to. Sometimes I wonder if mom regrets feeding that motto to me, because mix that with my natural tendency to dream, and off I go...

So why do I feel guilty sometimes about "flying" away from home? I found an old journal entry yesterday dated early 2007 that said "I am enjoying life in Texas but if anything were to ever happen to mom or dad and I wasn't there, I don't know if I could ever forgive myself." Well, my dad was diagnosed with cancer within six months of that entry, and he passed away in Oct. of 2008. I've gone back and forth on "should I have moved back? should I have been there more?" It's amazing the mind games we play with ourselves. I'm not fully ready to delve into how I have or have not mourned the loss of my father, but I will say that it has made me question this whole "dreaming" business.

I believe that God wants us to experience the abundant life that He offers. As long as I am living for Him, serving and loving His people, then it doesn't matter where I live. Right? God puts desires in our hearts. He puts the passion for traveling and serving people in the hearts of missionaries. He puts the passion for athletics and youth in the hearts of men who start inner city youth programs for at risk teens. He puts the passion of music in the hearts of men and women who lead people in worship via singing, instruments, etc. All in all, it is safe to dream. It is fun to dream. It is imperative that we dream!

So where am I going with all of this? Maybe the lyrics hit on something when it said "how do you keep your feet on the ground when you know you were born to fly?" I think one way to translate that is to say that we are all living a story. We all have this one life to live. We can dream about what we want to put into those chapters or we can be proactive and write the chapters by living our dreams. So what is the title of your book? What chapter are you living in right now?