"Feels Like Home" - Edwina Hayes (Randy Newman Cover)

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I'm a Girl!

?So I am a girl.  Obviously.  But that doesn't mean I act exactly like a girl.  I am feminine (I wear heels, makeup and like my cleavage),  but I'm also a bit masculine (I go shooting, touch disgusting things, and try very hard to keep drama/my emotions in check).  There are very few people in my life that have made me cry, sticks and stones right? Unfortunately I do have this VERY embarrassing habit of bawling over the most insignificant things.  I cry reading newspaper articles, listening to certain songs, watching certain commercials (that Kleenex one gets me every time),  and definitely watching movies.  I cry at the majority of movies I go to, even if they are not particularly sad movies. 

Last weekend I found myself watching "My Sisters Keeper", a movie based off of the book by Jodi Picoult.  The movie/book is about a daughter, Anna, who attempts medical emancipation from her parents who rely on her to keep their other leukemia-inflicted daughter, Kate, to stay alive.  Needless to say I sobbed through the better part of the movie and came out of it with eyes as red as a Heroin addict's.

At a particular part of the movie an ailing Kate's wish is to leave the hospital and go to the Beach.  Her Dad agrees,  bundles her up, and takes her to the beach with the other children. Cameron Diaz plays the overprotective Mom who is furious at the thought of Kate leaving the safety of the hospital, even threatening her husband with divorce if he follows through.  In the end the Dad and children head to the beach and Mom eventually relents and joins them. The family is trying very hard for Kate's sake to be normal in a very not-normal situation. 

Now death is sad to begin with.  Untimely death - very sad.  The untimely death of a child, absolutely tragic.  This story gives a heartbreaking glimpse into the life of a family with a terminally ill child.  The movie spares no gruesome detail, Kate looks every bit the part of a Leukemia patient, from the pale, translucent skin to the decaying teeth.  It's a hard movie to watch if you know anyone that's been affected by a terminal disease because it shows the decline in quality of life very accurately.  It's tough because throughout the whole story Kate remains coherent, witty and loving.  Her mind is intact and her body is betraying her.

Edwina Hayes

During the beach scene in the movie, "Feels like Home" by Edwina Hayes plays. Hayes is an english - singer/songwriter who recorded her version of the song for the movie "My Sisters Keeper."  The song was originally recorded by Randy Newman, and later by Chantal Kreviazuk, but Hayes gives them both a run for their money.  Her soft, folky rendition of this classic song makes me teary eyed just listening to it (pathetic - I know).  At first listen you'd assume the song was written about a lover, but after seeing it in the movie I believe it's meant to describe any type of love, not just romantic.  In the movie it represents a parents love for their child, "I wanted someone to come along, And change my world, The way you've done."

In a theme I touched on in my post about the song "Home", by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, "home" is not necessarily a place.  As they sang in "Home",  "Home is whenever I'm with you.",  and Hayes sings, "Feels like home to me".  "Home" is a feeling you get when you feel safe, happy and loved.

Side Note:  The Book "My Sisters Keeper" by Jodi Picoult features a different ending than the one shown in the movie.

P.S. Sorry guys couldn't find a video that would let me embed - audio clip only unless you follow the link below.

Edwina Hayes � Feels like home
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Somethin' in your eyes, makes me wanna lose myself

Makes me wanna lose myself, in your arms
There's somethin' in your voice, makes my heart beat fast
Hope this feeling lasts, the rest of my life

If you knew how lonely my life has been
And how long I've been so alone
And if you knew how I wanted someone to come along
And change my life the way you've done


It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from
It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong


A window breaks, down a long, dark street
And a siren wails in the night
But I'm alright, 'cause I have you here with me
And I can almost see, through the dark there is light

Well, if you knew how much this moment means to me
And how long I've waited for your touch
And if you knew how happy you are making me
I never thought that I'd love anyone so much

It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way the back where I come from
It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong

"Home" - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

If you've ever looked up the definition of the word "Home" in the dictionary you'll find something interesting. It lists the typical definition you'd expect, but then it continues, "Home", is also used to refer to the geographical area in which a person grew up or feels they belong. As an alternative to the definition of "Home" as a physical locale, home may be perceived to have no physical definition - instead, home may relate instead to a mental or emotional state of refuge or comfort."

 

If you Google my name, (but you can't, because you don't know it), you�d find a few articles on me, mostly work related. You'd also find (embarrassingly enough), a link that identities me as a past winner of a poetry contest for the Icelandic Festival in Gimli, MB. It doesn't show the actual poem that I won for, but I had penned a tribute to Gimli, a small Icelandic community on Lake Winnipeg. Gimli is my "Home". One of my accomplishments is that the Premier of Iceland  used a line from my poem in a speech he delivered. The line was, "Home is not where you live, but where you feel most alive".

I have visited Gimli with my family several times a year, every year - since I was born. I lived there myself for about a year, and now my parents live there. I'll retire, grow old, and probably die there. It's hard to describe the feeling I get when I'm there, but mostly I feel safe and happy. I make a point of seeing the Lake every time I'm there, (which really isn't that hard). Sometimes I find myself missing the lake, in the same way you'd miss a person. I won't ramble on with boring details and stories about Gimli, but I'm sure many of you have your own "home" that you can relate to. I'm like one of those awful "relationship people" that can't stop gushing about their significant other, and won't shut up about how great they are. Except instead of talking about a person I swoon over Gimli. So I�ll spare you the details and just attach my favorite picture instead.

I have to give credit where credit is due and admit that my neighbor turned me on to this song. And as much as my neighbor grinds my gears sometimes, he does have exceptional taste in music. If there is one thing we can agree on it's music. My first impression of this song, was that it was recorded in the 70's or 80's, because of the musical style. Oddly enough "Home" was released on the debut album from Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros in 2009. The song received huge chart success in Australia, but  their most exposure was gained from the YouTube video, "Guy walks across America", by Conscious Minds. The song "Home" was the soundtrack for this amazing that video uses stop-motion video to document a guy in Levi jeans walking across America. See the video below.

Submission from Postsecret.com

The song lyrics are goofy, "Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie, chocolate candy, Jesus Christ, There ain�t nothin� please me more than you", but ridiculously catchy. I think as a rule any song with whistling in it will undoubtedly get stuck in your head. My favorite line of this whole song is, "Home is wherever I'm with you." Home doesn't necessarily have to be a place, it could be a feeling. So let "Home" be whatever you want it to be, a place, a meal, a song, a smell, or a person."

Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa

Not the way that I do love you


Holy roly, me, oh my, you're the apple of my eye
Girl, I've never loved one like you


Man, oh man, you're my best friend, I scream it to the nothingness
There ain't nothin' that I need

Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie, chocolate candy, Jesus Christ
There ain't nothin' please me more than you
Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I'm with you


(2x)
La la la la, take me Home
Baby, I'm coming Home

I'll follow you into the park, through the jungle, through the dark
Girl, I've never loved one like you


Moats & boats & waterfalls, alley ways & pay phone calls
I've been everywhere with you
That's true

We laugh until we think we'll die, barefoot on a summer night
Nothin' new is sweeter than with you
And in the sticks we're running free like it's only you and me
Geez, you're something to see.

"Jade?"
"Alexander?"
"Do you remember that day you fell out of my window?"
"I sure do, you came jumping out after me."
"Well, you fell on the concrete and nearly broke your ass and you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you off to the hospital. Do you remember that?"
"Yes, I do."
"Well, there's something I never told you about that night."
"What didn't you tell me?"
"While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was going to be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you and I never told you 'til just now."
"Now I know."

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is whenever I'm with you

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I'm alone with you

Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I'm with you

Ahh, Home
Yes, I am Home
Home is when I'm alone with you.


Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa
Moats & boats & waterfalls & pay phone calls

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I'm with you

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I'm alone with you