There's something so inspiring about going to a place like The Bluebird Cafe. In that small, strip mall restaurant that only holds about 40 people, you can just feel that you're in the presence of greatness. For those who aren't familiar with this Nashville landmark, it is hallowed ground - the place where struggling songwriters who've moved to the music city with barely enough cash to get by and a dream of just having someone hear their song have their prayers answered.

I can't pick a guitar or carry a tune in a bucket, but music has always had a near and dear place in my heart. The right song can move me to tears, and a melody can arouse emotions I didn't know I had. And just being in the Bluebird brings back memories of my childhood... traveling back and forth from small town Mississippi to Tennessee with my mom for songwriters seminars and conferences and just to breathe in the dream-filled Nashville air.

This past Thursday, I had the pleasure of going with my dear friend Kaley to hear some of Nashville's great writers, including Lari White ("I Will Not Say Goodbye" - Danny Gokey), Marc Beeson ("When She Cries" - Restless Heart), Bernie Nelson, and Allen Shamblin ("The House that Built Me" - Miranda Lambert, "Where the Blacktop Ends" - Keith Urban). These people are just simply amazing, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly jealous of Shamblin's ability to write such beautiful music as Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me."

If you are a musician, an artist, the creative type, or a dreamer, and can step foot into this place without leaving feeling like life has just been breathed into you, you're a stronger person than me. It is pure inspiration. It is courage in the form of hearing someone sing from the heart the song they gave life to. It is the will to keep on chasing your dream, despite the fact that it may be a little harder to make ends meet. It is feeling the butterflies for that 20-something writer singing their first song at the place they know could make it all happen. It is the strength to keep pushing yourself every day to create the life you want. It is the proof that dreams do come true.

I hope everyone had a very happy Easter! Josh and I just returned from a trip to Nashville to visit my family and boy did we have a good time. Nashville is very near and dear to my heart - I moved there from Mississippi right after I graduated high school and went to Belmont for my first three semesters of college, Josh and I were married in Nashville at the beautiful Scarritt-Bennett Center, and now, my family lives just outside of the city!

Every time I go to Nashville, I go with an agenda. This time, that agenda included having Shipley Donuts for breakfast (no Shipley in NC and they are my FAVORITE), taking a drip to downtown Nashville for the first time in over a year, and indulging in a Las Paletas popsicle (the absolute BEST popsicle you've ever tasted in your whole life)...

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You can get one here at Hot & Cold in Hillsboro Village....

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and this is the face you make when you eat one because they're just so darn good. Mine was cantaloupe.

After we cooled down with that delicious treat, we headed to the waterfront to take a stroll down Broadway, which was packed with tourists. There's never a dull moment in downtown Nashville... the proof is in the pictures...