Some of the songs I've written have been inspired by life experiences but others have come from other forms of inspiration. This song was initially inspired by a sticker. A while ago, as I was in a store ready to check out, I noticed a display of stickers and realized that there were a few that tied in with some of the songs I had written. It was at that point that I decided to start collecting stickers to add to my guitar case, hoping to eventually have one for each of my songs that I'd written. At one point, I came across a dragonfly sticker that caught my eye. I didn't have a song about a dragonfly but since I was so drawn to it, I decided to buy it anyway and write a song to go with it. 

I've heard that dragonflies are said to bring messages from loved ones from the “spirt world” or that a visit from a dragonfly could be a deceased loved one visiting us. One summer day, as I was out on the lake on my paddle board, a dragonfly landed on my board and rode with me for quite a while. Remembering what I'd heard about dragonflies, I started a conversation with it, asking if it was Micah, my teenage son who had passed away a few years earlier. At that moment, I heard Micah's voice in my head saying, “Mom, I am NOT a dragonfly!”

Remembering that, I knew this wouldn't be a song for Micah but instead, my dragonfly song would be one that I would write for my daughter, Annika. I wrote it as a message of encouragement and support for her as she was preparing to leave home and start a life of her own. As much as the mother in me wanted to protect her and shelter her from any harm that life would bring, I also knew that I would have to let her go out on her own to make her own way. Although life hasn't always been easy for her, I've seen her rise above the disappointment and messiness of life and make her life into something to be proud of. She has worked hard to make her dreams come true and I couldn't be more proud of her and the amazing woman that she has become. “Oh, my little dragonfly, just spread your wings and aim for the sky. Dream your dreams so big and high, you were always meant to fly!”

The theme for this album began years before this recording was even a glimmer of a dream. Of the thirteen songs on this album, some of the first ones written were “What If” and “A Little Piece of Heaven”. Both of these songs were written from a place of grief. As I was trying to process and deal with the loss of my son to cancer in 2018, I found songwriting to be one of the best ways to work through the emotions and questions that I was experiencing. Many of the songs on this album have a bit of that grief and loss worked into them but also a feeling of hope and healing. In spite of the devastating loss of my son, I was eventually able to see all of the gifts that I still have in my family and friends who supported me through those dark days.