A Southern Voice

I have only recently begun sharing my blog with a few friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. I have so appreciated their feedback. Yesterday, one of those new readers commented that there was an air of "southerness" in my blog. She could hardly have paid me a nicer compliment.

I am a true daughter of the South. Tim McGraw had a hit country song....Southern Voice. Well now, perhaps there's a contender for the name of my dream vacation house, the subject of an earlier blog. Yes indeed, Southern Voice.... a great name for the beach bungalow of a blogger! I smile (and try to sing) every time I hear McGraw's Southern Voice. I cannot help but identify with its soulful southern rock lyrics.... "Hank Williams sang it, Number Three drove it, Aretha Franklin sang it, Dolly Parton graced it, Tom Petty rocked it, Hank Aaron smacked it, Michael Jordan dunked it, Pocahontas tracked it......Dr. King changed it, Bear Bryant won it, Billy Graham saved it." And with a refrain that's, "smooth as a hickory wind that blows from Memphis down the Appalachian Trail," I'm thinking Rhett and Scarlett, camellia bushes, the Cooper River, magnolias and pine, giant oaks, moss and sand. Surely the it is my south, right?

Often as my family travels out of our native south, some new friend will inevitably overhear me (or Drew) speak and ask, "Georgia or Texas?" For a time, my response was, "Excuse me?" Now, with a smile, it's a quick and sincere, "Thank you." After all, both states are 'dee-cidedly' southern. More importantly, a true daughter (or son) of the south simply embraces the accent. What else can one do?

Along with Tim singing, "Sweet Iced Tea and Jerry Lee, Daytona Beach, that's what gets to me," I will proudly flaunt my southern voice and my southern roots. Wish I could do it in song as McGraw has. Anyone who has heard me sing will most 'dee -finitely' appreciate my promise to stick to the written southern word.

I might have added a few of my own joys of the south to Tim McGraw's list.....Sunday snow cones and chicken after church....grits...what was I thinking, shrimp and grits......mimosas on holiday mornings.....hummingbirds and hydrangeas....country music, Hootie, blues, and jazz. Yes, that's my south.

God richly blessed the south and those lucky enough to live here. There are God Sightings (as my children are discussing this week in Bible School)everywhere, from the beautiful and distinct southern seasons to the vast diversity in topography, from her Bible Belt foundation to the Triangle of cutting edge research, from an almost perfect climate to some of the best cooks anywhere, from authors Anne Rivers Siddons and Dorothea Benton Franks to Pat Conroy and John Grisham, this is my south and I love it!

I will admit to more than my fair share of wanderlust. Although travel always recharges my batteries, I also always find my spirit soaring as we touch down in beautiful Charlotte, and I know I am almost home.

I am, after all, most at home in the home of fierce football and basketball and budding baseball rivalries, breathtaking Carolina beaches, spectacular southern design and architecture, stately southern college campuses, church steeples everywhere. And if this 'Song of the South' should inspire a move to our lovely area, I even know a 'dee-finitively' Southern realtor!