And my heart was home again...

Then I saw your face across the street

And my heart was home again...

Josh Groban

We have some homework for my Bling your Blog class. And it's great homework. I hate to say I'm sort of having to "half arse" the homework this week as I'm working about three hours of overtime or so a night (that is on top of my regular work day, commute, household chores, etc.)

So although I want to be a superstar, time just isn't there this week.

But Kim did give us an assignment tonight (as I assume she will do every night) and this one just spoke to me and I couldn't resist...

She wants us to write a blog post about a song. I've been thinking about what song I could use for the past few hours (in the back of my mind) and one song keeps coming back to me...Josh Groban's "My heart was home again."

When you listen to the lyrics it is actually a love song but the chorus really speaks to me. And it's been "haunting" me for a few weeks. So much so that I ended up doing a double layout with that as the title. I SO WANT to show that layout off on this page but unfortunately I can't - I've submitted it for subscription (fingers crossed it gets picked up).

I can say this...

That song brings me back to my "bande poubelle" - back to a group of amazing people that I met in Brussels even though most are from Spain.

Our friendship began nearly 10 years ago now and it's still going strong. I think it takes exceptional people and more specifically exceptional friends to keep a friendship going across the miles for that long.

I know it sounds cliche but they are so much more than friends to me. They are a family. More specifically they were MY family for the year I lived in Brussels. They shared my joy and tears. They helped me make memories that are forever engrained in my mind. They shaped who I am today.

After nearly five years of not seeing eachother I announced we were engaged. Nearly the entire group made many sacrifices to make the long trek to Canada to celebrate our joy and our wedding day. It's pretty hard NOT to be happy on your wedding day but having them around just took it to the next level. And I was not alone. My friends and family that had been hearing all about them for years immediately fell in love with them as well. Even my young niece and nephew!

Denis and I have been fortunate enough to go to Europe the past two years in a row so essentially our group has gotten together nearly every year for the past four.

And this is where the title of the song comes in...

Our lives are so busy and so different. We may go weeks or in some cases even months without hearing from eachother. But one look, as soon as they are in my sight line and my heart is home again.

t is the most amazing feeling. It is a feeling that is so rare to find. I feel intoxicated with happiness just by being around them.

My friend Rach (hey Rach) asked today if I had "one of those friends" and I had to smile - I have an entire group of them. A group that had to be the first to hear my greatest joy (and soon after my greatest loss). Because of circumstances they knew before my own family did. That's how important they are to me.

And every now and then the tears just well up inside because it hurts so much to not be around them all the time. But inevitably those tears are quickly followed by a smile or even laughter when some memory fills my brain.

So to my "old" friends Lucia, Mandy, big Miguel and little Miguel, Mabel, Paul, Io, Kieran, Juanan, Ana, and Cheech, and to my "new friends Marina and Danny - thank you. Thank you for the gift of my friendship and thank you for making my heart be home again with just one look.

****edited to add****

After writing this post I clicked to open my blog in a different window (to see how it looked) and to my GREAT SHOCK "And my heart was home again" came on. I have nearly 100 songs in my playlist and that one song came on.

How perfect is that? I think that speaks to our connection even more. I also realised it's impossible for me to listen to this song without tears.

Que sueno con los angelitos Honey Bear, Chunkey Monkey, Mabelita, Ana Ana Bo Bana and all the rest.