A little girl in Finland
The good old song “Take me home country roads” starts with the lyrics “Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River”.
This little story tells you how Blue Ridge Mountains seem to have been playing a role in my life since I was a little kid in Finland without me knowing it for over 40 years.
I’ve always loved music, at some point I wished to learn how to play piano, then drums and lastly guitar. Even if I never learned to play any instrument I still am a huge music lover and always listen to the music.
The Song “Take me home, country roads” was the very first song I remember loving as a little girl back in Finland.
Of course I had no idea what the lyrics were saying, since I spoke only Finnish then. I could just remember ‘take me home, country road’ and kept singing it. This song stuck in my mind as a symbol of my childhood favorite song. This was long before rock music and heavy metal were the number one during my teenage years.
The Song “Take me home, country roads” was the very first song I remember loving as a little girl back in Finland.
North Carolina
Interesting detail, all these years I was never really a country music lover… not until I moved to North Carolina and I learned to listen to it and then love it. I lived in Finland when I fell in love with this country song. I also lived in Greece and finally arrived in the U.S. So I’ve been exposed to many different music genres through the countries I lived in and the countries I have visited.
These frequent moves and changes made me very adaptable and able to expand my interests, likes and loves. So it didn’t take me long to appreciate this music genre too.
Last winter I decided to create a playlist with songs that have played an important role in my life, or that I just really loved for some reason. This idea sparked as my friend shared his playlist and I found the idea very inspiring.
So…the obvious number one was “Take me home, country roads” even if I hadn’t heard this song for years.
‘The place I belong’
As I was listening to the song in my home in North Carolina and heard the reference to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I got goosebumps… For a moment I felt like some kind of prophecy come true:
“Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong”.
Here I was now; living in North Carolina and had just recently visited Western North Carolina falling in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains… and feeling for the first time in my life that I could actually settle my roots somewhere in this area which I had started to consider as my home. If you know me, you know I call myself a nomad, as I have been on the go for a long time and haven’t felt certainty where my permanent home should be.
Even if recently I moved away from the South back to Massachusetts.. I believe at some point my calling will bring me back to the South, somewhere close to these mountains, to the place I belong.
