rechelle's lifelyrics

We recently went on an epic tandem cycling adventure road trip to celebrate 35 years of marriage. During the drive time, we listened to several episodes of Bike Life podcast (link: https://www.podpage.com/bike-life/). In the episode, “Embracing the Unknown,” Dan Schmitt was sharing how he had spent 25 years dreaming of making a cross country bikepacking trip across northern US and into Canada. When asked if his family was worried or surprised about his decision to fulfill that dream, he responded that his 4 kids had heard him talk about it their whole lives, so it really wasn’t a surprise to any of them. My thoughts trailed off as we were listening, “What has my dream been – that my kids would know…?”

It occurred to me that I am on the cusp of realizing my own dream through my recent life changes and creating this website!

I really didn’t start songwriting until I was raising all but one of our kids (he was born 8 years after the first four). I couldn’t play the songs I was writing on my own. I learned to play the piano as a girl, but when I started songwriting, I was homeschooling four kids and had very little time to work on redeveloping my skills on the piano. I would write the lyrics that were percolating in my heart, and then develop the melody while struggling to find the chords on the piano that made the music I could hear in my head.

One day, I was trying to sing and play one of my newly written songs for one of my friends. It was so difficult for me, it felt like I would always need someone else to either learn and play my music or learn and sing the lyrics. Doing both at the same time was truly arduous. My friend said, “Rechelle, I can see it! You will be playing and singing with no problem. It’s going to happen.” It really sounded impossible and I wondered at her confidence.

Twenty years later, I have written over 40 songs, and just last year I performed one of my original songs for the first time in front of an audience of mostly strangers at a fundraising event. The decision to retire earlier this year has lead me on an unexpected path. I’m overcoming my fears by following the advice in Karen Carpenter’s song, “don’t worry that it’s not good enough…” I’m building my website to include my artistic expression and the songs that I was protecting by only sharing with people I knew and in situations where I felt “safe.” This new frontier is actually helping me realize my dream of recording all of my songs in a way that can be a keepsake for my family. I am amazed that the vision my friend had all those years ago really came true, and I have come to a place in my life that I can share my heart and songs in a setting that feels right.

Hearing Dan Schmitt talk about how fulfilling it was to make that cross country journey he had dreamed of for so long was inspiring. I’m excited to be facing my fears and embarking on my own journey to achieve my dream in a way I never imagined!

(p.s. I recently found out that subscribers to my newsletters do not have access to the links I embed in my blog posts. : (

So until I get that figured out, please migrate to one of the links at the top of the “newsletter” email to read my blog, and then you’ll have access to the links I share for my recipes, other people’s websites, etc.)