Want to feel lighter this year? Don’t count calories; count your blessings. I’m going to reduce my wish list, not my weight. In the song, Zac names some of his blessings: his “good friends, living down the street,” his attractive wife, his pleasant small town (where, presumably, everyone knows his name), and realizes: “I’ve got everything I need, and nothing that I don’t.”
It would be tempting to dismiss Zac Brown’s contentment: of course he is content! Zac is a country music mega-star who could surely afford anything he wants or needs. I can hear someone asking, "What if he was burdened with my underwater mortgage, dead-end job, tapped-out credit card, and surly spouse?” Surely then he’d be writing about being “home flown”, not “Homegrown".
Perhaps. But I appreciate the reminder that threads through many of Zac’s songs—“Homegrown" is only the latest example—to appreciate the simple good things in life, many of which are free or cheap and available to us all, regardless of our employment status or bank account balance. Consider:
I like my chicken fried, cold beer on a Friday night, a pair of jeans that fit just right…there is no dollar sign on peace of mind....That’s from the band’s breakout hit single, “Chicken Fried,” in 2008. Now nearly seven years later, Zac and band are still extolling the virtues of home, family, and simple living. “Homegrown” reminds us of this again, and adds to it the realization that much of our angst, emotional baggage, and simple unhappiness comes from wanting what we don’t have rather than what we do have. “It’s the weight that you carry of the things you think you want” that slows us down.
So while I am not normally a new year’s resolution person, this year I’m taking Zac Brown’s advice to pay more attention to the good things I’ve already got. And I’m going to focus on reducing the length of my wish list—too much wanting will only weigh me down.
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