“Home Is Where Ones Heart Is” Lyrics and Music by T. Russell Dye Copyright ©2014 Best Viewed in “HD” ***Please feel free to share this video if you’d like*** My Mom and Dad became very teary eyed while watching and listening to this video last night. This song deals with the loss of a loved one – be it a spouse, a child, a close relative, a very close friend – or that special neighbor that’s always lived down the street. However, this song began so very differently. Story behind this song……. I began writing this song shortly before my separation, while I was still living at home with my wife and kids. It was during the winter months and like so many other nights, I simply couldn’t sleep. I was tossing back and forth, my mind consumed with thoughts of how messed up my life had become. My marriage, my life and by this time, even my relationship with my kids was in complete disarray. I remember lying in my bed, tears streaming down both sides of my face – simply lost in grief. So I sat up and began to write down what I was feeling…… and thus the opening lyrics – in fact the first verse leading up to the chorus was written on that very night…..and it’s all about me (well at least it was when first penned). I remember thinking about how cold and empty I felt……and thus the opening lyrics: “I can sit beside the fireplace and I still feel winters chill.” Followed by, “and these rooms once filled with laughter….now your silence is all I hear.” Then, “I pass the pictures in the hallway....and the tears begin to fall” – thinking of the many times I’d done just that – stopped and looked at the “happy faces” in the old photographs and as I would do so, the tears would just start falling. Then I thought about a sign that once sat outside our home – you know the “Home Sweet Home” signs……. And I thought to myself “They say Home Is Where One’s Heart Is”….. “But my Heart’s no longer here.” – simply thinking about my Heart no longer seeing a way to fix our broken home – a Heart that was just simply not in it anymore. And that’s how the first of the song was written – and it was all about me. I sang those few lyrics for several days (with the same melody that the completed song now has) for that was all I had of the song. At that time, I had no intentions of writing a song for “others” to listen to – it was simply a song about “me” – as often times, my music and songwriting was like “self-therapy” for me. It often helped me to “sort things out” and often times helped me to see things more clearly. Anyways, that was my intentions, with regards to this song – However, God had a different plan for the song…..I just didn’t realize it at the time. I forgot about the song for a few days and then it came back to my mind so I decided to try and come up with some more lyrics – plus I needed to come up with a “chorus”. So I began to sing what I’d written earlier. Each time (up until this time) when I sang those lyrics I only saw “me” – for it was going to be a song about me and my feelings….. But something happened this time as I began to sing those lyrics – I didn’t see “me” but instead I saw an “old man” sitting alone in an old house. Often times when I’m writing music I see like these “music videos” in my mind – and that’s what this was…….But who was this “old man” – because this was supposed to be a song about “me”. It wasn’t an “older me” – just an old man, someone I didn’t know and as I sang those lyrics I saw that old man sitting by a fireplace in an Old Big House – he was alone. I could see him shivering even though he was sitting right beside a burning fire. I watched him as he got up and began to walk from room to room and as he passed each room I could see his memories of those rooms – family gatherings, music, laughter, smiling faces and all that….. But then it would simply vanish as he peered into room – for the reality was that the rooms were now void of such. Then I saw him walking up a hallway – he was walking towards me, he stopped and gazed at the many pictures still hanging on the wall…….and I began to weep (yes, I actually began to cry for real) because as I watched him – tears started streaming down his face as he simply broke down…..and it was then that I realized he was looking at photographs of he and his wife…….and now what I was seeing was beginning to make sense to me – for I realized his wife had recently passed away. All of that completely changed the direction of the song and its future path. Instead of this song being about “me” it was now about that “old man”….and eventually – the song, as written in its finished version now – is or can really be about anyone that’s experienced the loss of a loved one. My parents both listened last night for the first time and they thoroughly enjoyed it. They said it was beautiful – despite the tears they both had to wipe away…..so I guess it’s a beautifully sad song…. I don’t know – I just merely write what I feel God has placed on my Heart to write. The opening lyrics still get to me though – although they are not about “me” as the song is now written – they take me back to that cold winter’s night as I lie awake in my bed crying – unable to sleep. I realize now had I not sat up that night and started writing – this song would’ve never been written…. That night was anything but “beautiful”……so I guess that’s why my parent’s comments really hit home with me. You see, only God can take something painful and ugly and make something “Beautiful” out of it! The opening lyrics were penned by a man at the end of his rope – a man drowning in despair…..yet by God’s Amazing Grace, the man that has now finished the song – is a man full of hope and faith that the best days are still yet to come. A man who’s determined to let God make something “good” out of everything “bad” in his life….. For he believes the God he knows and loves has the power to do so! If God is for you, what’s it really matter as to who’s against you? God Bless and thanks for listening……. Russell
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:23:24 +0000
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