As I was sitting in the car listening to Andy Grammer’s new hit song “Back Home” I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite songs, “I Feel Home” by O.A.R. I then started to think of all the other songs I loved that dealt with being home. Whether I was jamming out to “Sweet Home Alabama” (a guilty pleasure of mine) or taking solace with Phillip Phillips, there is something that really stirs my heart, remembering that “no matter where we go / We always find our way back home.”
Home Sweet Home | Flickr User Warren | Flickr Creative Commons
Curious how many songs really did mention the topic of home, I did a quick search in Spotify and found what I thought was interesting results. In the tracks list I found 15 top hit songs that stretched across genres that were all titled simple “Home” and countless other songs with home in the title as the scrolling seemed to go on and on. It was a similar situation with album titles — at least 14 that I counted titled “Home” and many more with longer home-y titles.
What is it about home that fascinates us all so much? The idea of “home” inspires creative minds and, an enchanted audience keeps these types of songs on the top of the charts. For me the appeal of home has been the flexible nature of the word. I don’t think of home as just the physical building where my biological family lives. As a Jesuit I have moved around a lot the past four years. That combined with the one week or so I spend back in my hometown every year has forced me to reconsider what home means to me.
For me home is the many communities that have supported me. Some days it is the Jesuit communities I’ve lived in, others the volunteers and teachers, and co-workers in numerous ministries. And sometimes, it is my fellow undergraduates sitting with me day after day in classes or helping me grow through retreats. Home is the place I go to grow myself and help others to grow with me. Home is the place where I can be myself fully alive. It’s the place I can always come back to at the end of a day and feel supported and loved.
“Ball Game” | Photo by Author
And this is, I think, what attracts us so much to this topic of home. We are searching for a place to feel loved and for people to support us. What a great world we live in that values so greatly such a wonderful thing!
I started creating a playlist of songs that felt like home to me, but I’m curious what are some songs that feel like home to you? Let me know in the comments and I might add them to the public spotify playlist title “Feelin Home.”
