this project, it was different for me than past projects. When we made Pure, which was my last album before this, the vision was very clear. I knew exactly who it was for, what it was for. Even the sonics of it all fell under this general theme that was very clear. And with this project it was not like that. We kind of just got in the studio, started writing, started producing, and I was just asking the Lord for direction. All the songs were fitting together. It was all feeling cohesive, but I was like,“ I don’ t know. I don’ t know what the theme of this project is. I don’ t know what the title is. I don’ t know what the purpose is yet.” And one of our friends, Jessie Early, who wrote quite a bit on the project, jokingly said,“ What if we named it Have You Ever Looked Around and Realized Everything You Ever Wanted is Right in Front of Your Eyes?” We had just written the song. She was fully joking, but I kind of loved it. And as we were producing and putting finishing touches on the album, I just sat with it, and it started to feel like the theme of this project. It’ s all very centered. We made it in an Airstream trailer that we turned into a studio in our backyard. So it was literally in our home, and a lot of the project, it’ s just not the best idea, unfortunately, to make an album in a metal bullet. So, we ended up tracking a lot of it connected to the Airstream, but we set up a vocal booth in our closet. We tracked a lot. We tracked drums in our living room, but it’ s all connected to the Airstream. So it was very much like a home family affair. My husband and his brothers and his cousin produced it. Our kids were in and out. We’ re just living life and making this project. So it kind of started to feel like this just family-centered, just perspective, gratitude for what we have. Another big thing that happened while we were making the project that kind of ties into the gratitude and perspective, have you ever looked around, realized that you’ re in the dream, is while we were making the album, when we were out in the studio tracking and producing, there were a couple different weeks consecutively where a bunch of Blue Jays were flying around in our backyard, landing on the fence, landing in the trees, five or six at a time. And it was springtime when we were making the album this past spring, and so we had the door of the Airstream opened a lot of times. It was like we were outside, and I would just watch the Blue Jays, and I started looking into them because it felt significant that they were just there a lot of the time. So, I started looking into the meanings connected to Blue Jays, and they’ re very tied to gratitude. And so, the Blue Jays kind of became this symbol. It’ s this reality of maybe I’ m living inside the dream, maybe everything I ever wanted, I already have. Maybe
we spend so much of our lives praying, asking God for things, dreaming about things, headed towards the next big thing. And it’ s beautiful.
As humans, I think there’ s a beauty to having a drive, having dreams, moving towards something all the time, and even dreaming with God. But there’ s another piece of life that can get missed in the onward motion of things, and it’ s just noticing how wonderful everything is in front of you. It started to feel like a no-brainer.
10 October 2026 Subscribe for Free...