The House Where Nobody Lives

This song almost speaks for itself. It's so incredibly powerful to listen to it, particularly if you happen to be either living in or healing from a situation in which your home is (or was) not a place where you can find peace because the love that once filled it has been replaced with stuff, tension, fear, irritation, and conversations revolving around logistics. As Tom so eloquently puts it:

Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone's heart break
Or did someone do somebody wrong?

I think the questions he poses in that verse are worth pondering, but in the end, I don't know if answering them helps at all with moving on. I know that when I moved out of my marital house and bought my own, much smaller house almost two years ago, I'd listen to that part and cry. But it was this part of the song that really empowered me and helped me start to look ahead:

I have all of life's treasures
And they are fine and they are good
They remind me that houses
Are just made of wood
What makes a house grand
Ain't the roof or the doors
If there's love in a house
It's a palace for sure
Without love...
It ain't nothin but a house
A house where nobody lives

There's love in my house again now. Self-love, love for my kids, love for my new Boogie-Nights orange leather loveseat. It's a palace for sure. And there's room in that palace for more laughter & dreams of the romantic variety...