“Home is where the Heart is”, this is the common saying. But without knowing the truth of your heart, how do you know where you live?
My own heart took a while to find.
From my first day of life to my 24th year, I lived with my parents. When you live with others, you live communally, in compromise with the needs of everyone involved. There were five people in my family, and we didn’t always compromise well. I was safe but could not resonate with this first home life.
My heart moved from this place and relocated itself in my imagination until I could take control and act from my choices.
I married my high school sweetheart and moved out for the first time. It was not to be the last. A musician’s life location is dependent on who wants to listen and where. It wasn’t long before I ended up buying a 30-foot RV to travel on music tours, taking my family of spouse, cats, parrot, and Jack Russell.
It was then that I became more clearly aware of my heart’s needs. A child descended from French Gypsies on my father’s side and Irish settled Romani on my mother’s, I now understood the link of Heart & Home.
Since that first time, I have relocated fourteen more.
I have experienced an interesting range of home life, from buying a little, leaky mobile home in a group park, renting a bi-level house and then a horse farm, owning 30 beautiful acres of evergreens with a small cottage, and then bouncing from friend to friend living in spare rooms or back yards with a fifth-wheel or currently, a 33-foot RV once again.
I know the security and pleasure of stewarding land that I have acquired full custody of.
I know how to prevail against the emptiness and uncertainty of being “homeless”.
Processing experience properly in Perfect Truth can bestow great magical power.
I have found that if I process with the intent of achieving gain from an experience, I find myself more centered, more energized and more capable of continuing forward.
I learn what my heart needs. I learn my strengths and limitations.
If I set my sights on obtaining what my heart truly resonates with and apply my strengths, my perception of hearth, home, and happiness becomes clearer.
The most important lesson I have learned is:
Always know where your heart is, every day, every minute that you can.
Your heart is constantly growing and what it needs can, and does, change.
Pay attention to the music you listen to. Your heart will seek out the proper songs and soundtracks to resonate with to show you where it lives.
Look around your physical world. What do you see? A place that reflects what your heart wants? A condition that causes your heart pain or sadness?
If it is the second of these, then go back and look at your heart again. Look at where it is, not what it feels. Your feelings are going to be the result of where you are versus where your heart is. They are not where your spirit resides.
Music works as a truth serum. It breaks through your mind’s filters and your heart will seek out musical places where it can settle in safety and relax. Look for the commonality of music and lyrics in all that you listen to so that you can discern your heart’s true home.
Be open to the possibility that it may not be obvious at first glance.
For the longest time, I thought that for me, it was a specific location. A place of wild nature, large bodies of water, beautiful sunsets, and moderate temperature year-round.
I have enjoyed many years in this area now, but change is unavoidable.
Despite my efforts to secure a home here, it has proven financially unattainable on a musician’s income.
Luckly, I have great friends who have offered me a house to live in, rent free for enough time to continue strengthening my musical career to afford my own stewardship of land should I still want it by then. The one caveat is that it is in a different state, far from where I am now.
The concept of moving came as a surprising challenge.
Why would I ever want to leave this area that I have called my forever home?
It was in asking that question, that I realized where my heart actually lives.
It lives in Love.
I am truly blessed to have love currently in my life. It wasn’t always that way.
It was only six years ago or so that I was living with someone, but there was no love at all, just cold tolerance.
That is when I started learning that all I really had for a “Home” was where my own heart was located.
In looking for that, I traveled many places in this realm and in others.
Over the rainbow, There and Back Again, and into the Labyrinth.
I kept looking until I could clearly see the fine details of where my heart resides.
It lives in the sunsets all around the world.
It lives in the natural, changing pattern of the seasons, light or dark, fruitful or fallow.
It lives in the everlasting beauty of the stars and the clouds.
These locations can be found anywhere in this world when I choose to keep my eyes open.
Most significantly, my heart lives best with the laughter and comfort of a loving companion.
I am fortunate to have a companion who, like me, has a heart residing in a location defined by deep breath, gratitude and the embrace of another’s magical energy.
This place is only found by first hearing the song of our own individual hearts and living within the resonance of that music.
We can’t share our love with each other if we don’t know where it lives for ourselves.
It’s taken me a long time to find that self-love.
One has to start with allowing it to live in the first place.
Your Home starts with your Heart.
Your Heart starts with Love.
Your Love starts with You.
You start with Magic.
Listen to your heart’s favourite music. Let it lead you Home.
A home that is wherever you are, that never suffers foreclosure, that never throws you out, that never locks the door.
Follow your heart’s Music. It will lead you to your Magic.
Let Magic & Music Be Yours, wherever your heart’s home resides.
If you might like to help me with the practical side of living in a home where the heart is, you can check this out: Fundraiser by Alexander Adams : Help Alec Move to a Safe Home Before Winter (gofundme.com)
Blessings! aja
For more information about Alexander James Adams, including his collected articles here on Pagan Song, his bio, and links to Alec’s sites on the web, check out Alexander James Adams’ page on Pagan Song.
Please subscribe to the Pagan Song blog, to receive our blog post each week. Don’t miss any of the musical magic!
Visit our homepage to see the full list of the musicians who write for the Pagan Song blog.
Pagan Song has a fan club on Patreon. Join for as little as $3 a month for exclusive features! Click for info.
Lovely sentiments, AJA! And it’s always a plus to find community with people whose heart resonates with yours–like the pagan music community.