Country imagines & preferences

The heart of Dixie - Danielle Bradbery

"She had a dead-end job at the National Bank

And a deadbeat husband who always drank

So when he didn't come home she had the gin to thank

For the tears in her eyes

So Dixie packed up and said her goodbyes"

Light came in through the curtains on the bedroom window and once again you were all alone. The other side of the bed was as if no one had slept there and the truth is that you knew no one had slept there last night. Your husband had spent the night on the street again getting drunk at some bar in town.

You were tired of his nights in the town just to get home completely drunk... You were tired of his friends Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker and Jim Beam... You were tired of the fights and the arguments...

Stretching out of bed, you knew another day was starting. Just one more day working at the boring city bank. It was a good job, but you weren't happy. Weren't you supposed to be happy? Or was money more important than all of that in this life?

After getting ready to go out for another work day, you checked your look in the mirror. You looked pretty in a white dress and gloves. You chose one of your red lipsticks and colored your lips. You were looking beautiful. But were you happy?

That question haunted you for some time. You had a husband you loved once, but now he was just a stranger with whom you shared a bed. Your job, which your parents were so proud of, had never really made you feel complete. This house you lived in was just an illusion of a happy couple, but in fact you both had ceased to love each other for a long time.

You wanted to be happy. You deserved to be happy.

So why were you still in that little town, in that house that was never your shelter with a husband who only knew how to break your heart?

And in an act of courage, perhaps the greatest act of courage in your life, you find yourself packing up your things. You took off the dresses from the wardrobe. Your books off the shelf in the living room. The photos you kept in a chest.

Standing on the porch, you closed the front door of the house. With that you were closing a chapter of your life.

And behind the wheel of your car, you looked in the rearview mirror just to see that your house with the white fence was nothing but a dot on the distant horizon. Soon you would start a new life, far away from that old boring little town.

"And she went driving so far away nobody's gonna find her

Flying just fast enough, to leave it all behind her

But she didn't know till she hit the road, deep in her soul

She's got the fire and the fight of a gypsy

Ain't nothing stronger than the heart of Dixie"

You went outside to watch the sunrise. You were completely in love with the way the orange tones painted the distant horizon. After so many years there, now that your hair was almost all white and there were wrinkles around your bright eyes, you still fell in love every day with the wonderful view.

There was not a day when you regretted that morning when you got behind the wheel of your car without a destination. That act of courage leaving everything behind has been the most important moment of your life.

Maybe because when we leave our comfort zone we can realize that life is much more than we think.

All it takes is a leap of courage and faith.

Still looking at the sunrise, a small blue butterfly landed on your nightgown. It was beautiful. And you smiled because there was a little butterfly hanging in the rearview mirror of your car when you left behind all that you had to start that new life.

You knew now that everything would be all right. But if you could say something, just one thing, to your past self it would be something like: I got the fire and the fight of a gypsy 'cause ain't nothing stronger than the heart of Dixie.

*****

To: msanders-paust3

Thank you for showing me this song. :) Hope you like this imagine.

- With love, Ana xx