I found an old video of myself the other day. A teenager, dancing around in my childhood home, not a care in the world beyond the music and the moment. I hadn't seen it in years, and when I pressed play, it was as though every memory I own came rushing back to me at once.
A childhood friend of mine sent me a clip of myself the other day from an old school projector. A teenager dancing around at Val Verde Park in Valencia, CA, not a care in the world beyond the music and the moment. I had never seen it before but as I watched, it was as though every memory I own came rushing back to me at once.
I sat with that video for a long time. Longer than I meant to.
There is something about seeing yourself so young, so unguarded, that puts everything into perspective. That girl dancing in her living room the park had no idea what was ahead of her. She just knew she loved music, and that it moved something in her she couldn't quite explain. She dreamed, the way children do, without limits and without doubt.
Watching her and thinking about the new track I've been working on, I found myself overwhelmed. Emotional in a way I didn't expect to be on an ordinary afternoon because so much of what that girl dreamed about has actually come to pass. I have been able to help others through my music. I have been able to keep dreaming, and keep working, and somehow build a career that has endured across decades. That is not something I take lightly.
I think about the word "career" and it feels almost too small for what this has really been. It has been a calling. A way of giving. A way of nurturing something bigger than myself, in every room I've ever sung in and every person I've ever met along the way.
Right now, my heart is full of gratitude. I am grateful and thankful, and I mean that in the deepest sense of those words. I am thankful for my faith and in all that God has given me and still is giving. I look forward to continue loving my family, to being present for my grandchildren, to watching them grow the way I once grew, full of dreams of their own. Some days I simply sit and think and give thanks. That is enough.
My hope is that this music, this new chapter, will find its way into other people's lives and enrich them the way music has always enriched mine. That someone out there might feel a little less alone, a little more understood, a little more hopeful, because a song reached them at the right moment.
I am thankful, too, for those I have lost along the way. The ones who shaped me, taught me, and believed in me before I fully believed in myself, especially my Mom and Dad who helped to set up my foundation. I carry them with me, in every note. And I am thankful for those I have yet to meet, for my family especially my stalwart of a partner Doug Johnson, the people whose paths will cross mine because of this music, because of this life I have been so fortunate blessed to live.
That little girl dancing in the park could never have known where she would end up. But I think she would be proud of who I've become, and grateful, just as I am, for every single step of the journey.
With Love,
Sheree