The story behind Fly Back Home
I started writing Fly Back Home in 2023, around the same time I was working on early versions of A Forest Inside. There is some crossover imagery, most notably the big orange moon. It shows up in verse two of Fly Back Home:
Blood orange moon on the horizon
A tide of memories keeps on rising
And I try to follow them back home
As well as on these pages in A Forest Inside:
The origin of the blood orange moon imagery is from the first 4th of July after my Dad died. I was watching the fireworks over the lake with my family and as I was feeling the void of my Dad not being there, an enormous orange moon rose up behind the trees right beneath the fireworks. It was so bright and surrounded by fireworks. It was absolutely incredible. It sounds silly, but it felt like that moon was my Dad’s way of saying, “Don’t worry, I’m here.”
One of the surprising things to me about losing a parent was grieving my childhood. I know I’ll always be my Dad’s daughter, but I won’t ever get to experience being my Dad’s daughter in real-time again. I won’t get to show him my latest book, or play my latest song for him, or ask him what he thinks about X, Y or Z. Basically, I won’t get to be a kid with my Dad again. And that’s what this song is about – wanting to fly back home to that feeling of childhood. Of being with my Dad and being a whole family together.