As I get ready to explore and discover what it means to be home – I’d like to start by telling you a little about what you can expect to find here. My hope is to post something new every few days. Each month that will include two new Songs and two new Stories from Home as well as additional posts that talk about choices I made in creating those stories and writing the songs. I hope to share each song and story in audio, video, and written form. Because I’m still getting comfortable creating home videos and home recordings we’ll see how that works out. My intent is for each story to be between five and ten minutes long.
Fifteen songs introduced at Benaroya Hall on May 13, 2017 are part of an album called “Gratitude, Grit, and Grace.” Every month I will be introducing a concert video of one of those songs along with posts where you can listen to the studio recording of the song and learn a little about how it was written and the role it played on the journey home.
In addition I’ll be doing something I’m calling Visiting the Vault. Over the years I’ve written lots of songs with stories connected to them and songs that have stories attached. Each month I’ll be sharing one of those songs and some of the story that goes with it.
Now, before going any further I want to say how much it means that you would take the time to become part of all of this. I wanted to remind you also that songs and albums are available for purchase at the Website as well places like iTunes and CD Baby. As a way of sustaining this work - just like it was when I sang my first song in public so long ago - I’ll be passing the hat here as well. In this case that takes the form of asking for those who are willing to contribute financially to do so through something called Patreon. You can find a link to it at the website, MarkPearsonMusic.com.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that life can take a long time and it’s over in a heartbeat. There was a part of me that wondered if I’d ever know what it was like to be home – especially in those deepest recesses of myself. There’s another part that wonders how it could have taken so long to arrive at such a place. Most of all I’m simply filled with gratitude – to believe I’ve made it home – and to those who helped make it possible.
Thirty-five years ago I was given a quote by James Michener. Michener’s words have continued to resonate with me through the years – haunted me at times – and never meant more than they do today. The quote is from “The Fires of Spring”:
“For this is the journey that we all (must) make: to find ourselves. If we fail in this, it doesn’t matter much what else we find. Money, position, fame, many loves, revenge are all of little consequence. If we happen to find ourselves—if we know what we can be depended on to do, the limits of our courage, the position from which we will no longer retreat, the degree to which we can surrender our inner life to another, the secret reservoir of our determination, the extent of our dedication, the depth of our feeling for beauty, our honest and unpostured goals—then we have found a mansion which we can inhabit with dignity all the days of our lives.”
James Michener
A metaphorical mansion for sure – a place we can call home.
After completing the post on what to expect to find here there’s one more thing I want to make sure is clear. When I came off that stage at Benaroya Hall believing I was “home,” home was not a place I was returning to. In so many ways it was a place I was arriving at for the first time. On one hand it meant – means – that I was finally home with myself – who I am and what I’m doing. Yet that has been a gradual process over many years – not something that happened suddenly or overnight. As I try to explain to you and understand it myself, what it amounts to is in a lot of ways I’ll be discovering what it means to be home along with you. In the process I’m sure I’ll be wandering a bit and getting lost a few times. Over the years when I’m exploring new places if I don’t get lost I haven’t gone far enough. I also want to say that I never set getting home as a goal – in fact I never expected to get there – it feels like a gift – a blessing of sorts – and certainly something worth exploring and sharing.
The Road That Leads Us Home
On this road we travel down
It isn’t wealth or fame somehow
Or Power that we may hold now
That makes this life worthwhile
It’s not revenge or many loves
And glory never is enough
For in the end all turns to dust
After all of those miles
Our journey is to find ourselves
To share and care and love as well
Be witness for somebody else
And in the end to know
The depth of our determination
The extent of our dedication
The place we seek our inspiration
Our true and honest goals
The reason we find to believe
The way we set our demons free
That place where we will not retreat
Though we must stand alone
What we are counted on to do
The limits of our courage to
What we have found to be the truth
On the road that leads us home
©Copyright 2004
Love Gives More Music
