This new Sara Bareilles song, “Home” hits me in the chest each time I listen to it. It’s from an album called “GOOD GRIEF” that she’s about to release in August of this year. (2026)
It opens my grief box, and certain sudden realizations just begin to overtake me: the grief I still carry from the loss of my mother; the grief I still carry because, although I was around him all my life, my father died without ever understanding how to know or love me; the grief I hadn't named but now recognize as the deep impact of the Covid pandemic; the grief for our dying democracy; the grief I carry for dear friends lost in accidents, and in horrid struggles with disease.
Then, by fate or mysterious algorithm, this podcast, All There Is, appears in my feed on YouTube.
Understand…I’m a HUGE Sara Bareilles fan! Sara’s poetry, her complex melodies, and her incredible voice are beyond stunning, in my opinion! She’s a storyteller with all the special talents needed to convey those stories in the most pleasing music!
I also have always loved and respected Anderson Cooper. His award-winning reporting, his excellent debate moderation, and his most empathetic humanity are enviably inspiring.
Watching this interchange, including the backstory of the song, just squeezed my heart until it hurt.
Sara’s brilliance. Cooper’s raw emotion. Her descriptions of our “humanness” and the importance of sharing our grief, our stories, and the discussion that ensued about how we are all basically the same, with so many of the same needs, and about learning to understand what is truly important, and what is just bullshit…it was all so familiar, like I knew it, but it had been hiding within me, and they were shining lights in there and saying, “here they are! This is what you know is important! You must have just forgotten!”
Then this edition of this podcast kind of threw the lid back on my grief box and shoved my head in it, and held me there, like some high school nerd getting a swirlie! I watched them as the listened to both “Home” and “Salt, Then Sour, Then Sweet” and I sobbed! But to be fair, so did they! It was just so much at once. And they weren’t done!! They then played a video of Gavin Creel, one of Sara’s best friends, now deceased, playing and singing one of Sara’s most beautiful songs. More sobbing!
All that said, I also began to understand more deeply the connections that I do have, that I am blessed with, and thank the universe for those people around me who make my life more wonderful, just by being open and honest and available.
I’m sharing all this because I honestly hope you will go watch the entire video. I promise, despite the heart-wrenching subject matter and conversation, you will be touched, enlightened, and hopefully changed. The link is below.
https://youtu.be/OQLNyoCZZV0?is=IKfoU94dfMBkFY5i
