Expats Like Us
A podcast series exploring life as a U.S. Expat in Mexico. Topics include preparing to move to a new country, navigating your new home and finding your passion as a retiree.
Expats Like Us
Kelly Maher- Purposeful Living in Akumal
Have you ever fantasized about swapping your daily grind for the tranquility of a tropical locale? Kelly Maher did just that, and in our latest episode, she shares her transformative journey from a high-pressure media sales career in Atlanta to the peaceful rhythm of life in Akumal, Mexico. Her story isn't just about early retirement but finding a new community and redefining what it means to be active and engaged during the best years of your life.
The pandemic was a turning point for many, but for expats in Mexico, it was a chance to forge deeper bonds and discover a renewed sense of purpose. We unpack the powerful narrative of how one expatriate stepped up during a time of crisis, spearheading initiatives to feed families and support the local community. This episode is a profound look at the roles we can play after stepping away from our careers, proving that retirement is far from the end—it's a beginning, full of potential for meaningful contribution and personal growth.
In this heartfelt conversation, we also explore the ripple effect of community service and education. From the evolution of Akumal's Hekab Biblioteca to the inception of a water park in the Akumal Pueblo, these stories illustrate the incredible impact of giving back. Join us to hear how even the smallest acts—be it donating, volunteering, or supporting local arts—can empower a community and create lasting change. Witness the remarkable journeys of those who've traded in their 9 to 5 for a life of purpose in paradise.
We are incredibly thankful for engagement and stories from our listeners, who have found their own sense of 'home' across the globe. Stay tuned as we continue to share the wisdom and wanderlust of those who've charted their unique international courses. We'd love to hear your comments and questions. Email them to expatslikeus@gmail.com
For more information and content, follow Expats Like Us on Facebook and YouTube
You know, I retired at a pretty young age. What am I going to drink and sit on the beach for the next 40 years? No, of course not. You know, I need more in my life than that.
Bob Bosse:Welcome to ExPATs Like Us. A co-production with me, vita Margarita, exploring the world of US ExPat life in Mexico. In each episode, we'll meet new people and hear their stories. We'll also learn more about ExPat life and get a few tips on everything from making your move to settling in, to living your dreams and, most of all, having fun. Let's dive in. I'm your host, Bob Bosse. In the summer of 2021, my wife Sherry and I sold most of our possessions and made the move from Vermillion, south Dakota, to Acomal, mexico. Since that time, we've met some incredibly interesting people and learned a lot about making the transition from tourist to expats. Today, I'm excited to be talking with Kelly Mahur. Kelly is one of the people we met when we first moved to Acomal and is well known in the community for, among other things, her business experience as well as her community service work. Kelly's here to share her story of making the move to Mexico and provide some advice, maybe, for people thinking to make such a move. Hi, kelly, and welcome to ExPats Like Us. Hi, bob, thanks for having me. Thanks for being here today, kelly. Like I said, kelly is one of the people that I admire here because of the things that she does and the things that she's known for, and it's exciting to have you here today. So, kelly, tell us a little bit about your life before making the move to Mexico.
Kelly Maher:Life before Mexico, the last 20 years were spent in Atlanta. I'm a little different, I think, than a lot of expats. I'm single and I don't have any children, and my parents both passed away decades ago, so I've been on my own and doing my own thing for decades, and I had a very successful but stressful career in media sales when I lived in Atlanta Actually, most of my career was in media sales, so I worked ridiculous hours. I was an alcoholic. I always took every vacation day, though, because travel was really important to me, and so I just kept working with this goal of trying to retire as early as I could and then to start traveling the world.
Bob Bosse:I know that I worked in media myself in different areas of media, but it's high stress work and I can't imagine I was in the production end of it but sales.
Kelly Maher:Oh, my God.
Bob Bosse:I can't imagine. I've seen that stress before many times.
Kelly Maher:Yeah, it's you know, there's no paycheck. It's all commissioned sales. So it's all based on the relationships you build with your clients, your reputation, your, you know I mean it's. If you're not honest in the industry, you don't have a long career in it. Right, if a client can trust worthy and clients can trust you, then you can have a very lucrative career. And I tend to be a people pleaser, so I was good at it. I retired May of 2019. May 8th 2019. Okay, you never forget that day, never forget that day I had the countdown clock app on my phone, for, like the last year, was counting down how many days left till retirement.
Bob Bosse:Yeah, the same way with me. People would ask me, you know, two years out, they'd say so. Once you're, when are you going to retire? And I'd say June 8th 2021. Because I always was conscious of that. So when you, when you retired, you moved to Mexico. What inspired that I did? I?
Kelly Maher:wanted to get the right moments and think about the schedule for that morning. I probably for 20 years I had always had in the back of my mind living outside of the country. Once I retired and I actually had done the research, I'd narrowed it down to three countries. Riviera Maya area was on the list, but it wasn't number one on the list. Actually, belize was number one on the list, but after doing some more research I realized it wasn't as good of a fit and I used to come to this area a lot doing yoga retreats, specifically to Tulum. And then I discovered this community that we both actually happened to live in that has a permanent yoga facility on the property and I thought wait a minute, I can live full-time in a permanent yoga retreat. Okay, let's do that.
Bob Bosse:Right we should mention. I haven't really described where we live that much, but where we live is a very yoga centered retreat type of area.
Kelly Maher:People from around the world come here, yeah, yeah, yeah. Practice yoga. Yeah, you know, we have this lovely wellness center that has meditation and yoga and all sorts of great physical activities for those of us all in our middle ages to stay active and healthy.
Bob Bosse:And you know what that's. The other thing is, I'm always surprised at people. Yeah, we're all in our middle ages, but look at, people are in good shape and people are active here.
Kelly Maher:Well, I mean, you know, we're certainly not our parents. You know middle age, right? I mean, yeah, when I think back to what my vision of someone in middle age looks like. They don't look like us.
Bob Bosse:Right In my family they always talked about my grandfather. He died at like 68 years old. Wow, and that was considered he just died of old age. This is like in the 40s, you know that's crazy.
Kelly Maher:My family is actually a little different, although I lost my parents at a young age. My grandparents both lived to be 97. And my both of my mother's siblings were in their 90s when they passed. So I'm banking and my financial planner and I are banking on the fact that I'm going to be around for quite a while.
Bob Bosse:Yeah, that's a good thing to take into consideration.
Kelly Maher:Yeah, we just had to make sure the money was going to last.
Bob Bosse:Yeah, that's a good thing to know. That's my father lived to be 98 years old, so I get that. And my mother my mother passed away when I was a kid, same with me, but he was active until the end and it was I credit his physical activity with giving him the longevity, absolutely. So tell us, when you moved, what was the process that you went through in making the initial move?
Kelly Maher:Well, for anyone who knows me, they know I'm a little structured and I keep spreadsheets on everything, and so there was a lot of research that went into it and a lot of planning. It was a four year process of like winding down my life in Atlanta and preparing to move here. I knew that I would move very quickly after I retired, and I did. I sort of went on a six or seven week farewell tour throughout the Southeast saying goodbye to friends and family and July 3 of 2019. I was here full time. I think that's when I first met you guys. Yeah, because I think, you were down visiting, then we were Like the week that I had moved here.
Bob Bosse:I forgot about that. We met here, we met you and we were just visiting here on vacation.
Kelly Maher:Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it was like that first week of my living here.
Bob Bosse:So you're one of the people that you sold everything and made the move. I did, I own anything in the. United States anymore.
Kelly Maher:No absolutely nothing. Yeah, I sold everything. I. Whatever would fit in suitcases making trips down would come down with me, and that was it. Yeah, I loved the process. Actually, the more things I sold and got rid of, the freer I felt.
Bob Bosse:Welcome back. I'm here with Kelly Maher, an expat from Acomal Mexico and the friend of ours. Tell me, kelly, what you know. We talk about selling your stuff and moving here. What was, personally? What was the transition to the new life that you went through?
Kelly Maher:Well, you know, it was an interesting time when I moved here. I moved here July of 2019. And so I spent the rest of that year sort of being on vacation. Initially, right, like every day I needed to go to the beach and have a couple margaritas, and after a couple of weeks of that it's like all right. Well, I can't do this forever. But I spent the rest of that year sort of just getting acclimated, remembering how to get to the grocery store, remembering, you know, the pesos to US dollar conversion and living in the metric system and all of that, and just, you know, getting my bearings about me, and then my plan being to hit the road in 2020 and start traveling right. And then COVID hit.
Bob Bosse:Right, right. You picked a very interesting time to make a big change.
Kelly Maher:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, but it's interesting. I think it led me down somewhat of a different path than perhaps I might have taken otherwise, but it's all been great so.
Bob Bosse:Yeah, very cool. So what was it like COVID down here?
Kelly Maher:It was a little surreal, you know. Of course, we live in an area that is very much based on tourism. Everyone lost their jobs you know all of the staff at all of the resorts and the restaurants because everything closed down. The beaches even closed for three months, literally. You could not go to the beach. The National Guard, would you know, would arrest you or remove you, and that was in the summertime when it was hot and it's like boy, you know. And our swimming pools in the community closed down again for health reasons, and the wellness center closed down. So it was sort of those of us who were here and there were probably about 70 of us that were here during COVID we bubbled up and we spent a lot of time in the air conditioning or we, you know, or we spent a lot of time outside, but it certainly sort of Everything came to a screeching halt in some ways in terms of getting acclimated and expanding my life here. Obviously, I didn't get to travel, as was my original plan, so you know, but there were some really great things that came out of it as well, right, what good came out of that, or you know.
Bob Bosse:I can imagine, because, first of all, I can imagine that when that hit that, people here were just like oh my god, what have I done? Sure, what is going on? I'm in a country, I don't know the language, I I can't go anywhere.
Kelly Maher:I had friends back in the States begging me to just move back to the States and move in with them. Please don't be trapped down there in Mexico with COVID, you know, and I kept saying I feel safer here than I would in the US, because so much of life is built around the outdoors, here, in open air, and you know, until they shut the beaches down for those few months, I mean, I could walk on the beach, I could be in the open air. The few restaurants that were open were all open air. So you know. So from that standpoint, yeah. And then the other thing was it threw me into the community in a way that I would have never envisioned, certainly not at the speed at which it did, and I know that makes no sense whatsoever.
Bob Bosse:I can elaborate on that, but yeah, tell me about that being thrown into the sea. Yeah, what does that mean?
Kelly Maher:Well, what it means is quickly, I saw everyone had lost their job and you know there's no such thing as unemployment insurance here in Mexico. right, you lose your job, you lose your paycheck, you can't eat because you have no money, and the pueblos that are around us are very poor pueblos. I had heard of someone I knew down in Tulum who was putting together food bags for the local families down there, and I knew immediately that's what I needed to do, and so I partnered with Hecababitlioteca, which has a long history here in the community and the director knows all of the families very well. I fundraised both here in my community and the local area and back in the States as well, and put together 100 food bags that fed a family of four three meals a day, seven days a week for 39 weeks in 2020. So, literally, we started at the end of March and we fed families every Friday for the next week until the end of the year.
Bob Bosse:That is, that's amazing. I mean you could have easily sheltered yourself in your condo and said I'm afraid, and just you know, wallowed in this whole thing.
Kelly Maher:But yeah, but maybe huge difference in people's needs, huge difference in people's needs and I don't know I mean, you know, I owe a lot of it to the type of radio stations that I worked for in the States and the role that those radio stations played in the community and that it's built into my DNA of there's a problem I'm capable of solving, or at least helping to solve this problem. I have to do it and it was automatic. It's like I didn't even think about it and it was like I need a distribution point. I already know where I can find money. I know how to secure the food bags done. Let me just put it together and get it rolling.
Bob Bosse:It sounds like you maybe learned a lot about yourself during that process.
Kelly Maher:I did because I had not envisioned that being something that I was going to do when I moved down here. I figured at some point I would get involved in the community somehow or do something. I didn't know what that looked like and I certainly wasn't searching for it yet at that point. Everyone had warned me, when I got retired, to just be retired the first year. Don't get involved in the HOA, don't get involved in nonprofits, just be retired. And then at some point something will speak to you and you'll see a passion or you'll see a purpose and then go for it. And so, yeah, that's exactly what I did, I guess.
Bob Bosse:Yeah, and I you know that's one of the things that I like to try and emphasize to people considering retiring and making a move is have you need some sort of plan? You don't have to have a specific plan. It doesn't have to be. I'm going to be involved with this specific thing, but you got to know that you're going to have to find something.
Kelly Maher:You will. Otherwise, I mean, you're going to sit every day and drink which you know comes with its own set of problems. It's certainly not very fulfilling or satisfying. And you know and sort of going back to the discussion about 68 used to be old right in our parents' lives, but we all do live older and you know I retired at a pretty young age. What am I going to drink and sit on the beach for the next 40 years? No, of course not. You know, I need more in my life than that.
Bob Bosse:So yeah, and one of our guests mentioned that. You know, part of it is you go from being like. In my case, I was a manager. I had a bunch of staff One day. In the next day you're sitting on a beach. Nobody cares who you are.
Kelly Maher:You're not making any decisions. There's no title after your name anymore. There's no paycheck arriving.
Bob Bosse:We got nobody, you know showing you deference or respect or anything. Your experience means nothing.
Kelly Maher:when you're down here, you're absolutely right, and I see men that I've known, primarily because men tend to be in more managerial roles than women. But men suffer with what their purpose is, right, I mean because, yeah, they don't have a role anymore, they don't have a position and a title, they don't have a staff to delegate to. Yeah, suddenly they're just Joe Blow, yeah, right.
Bob Bosse:And yeah, you understand, I understand that very well because I felt the same way. I went six months and thought now what am I going to do? You know, I've relaxed as much as I can relax. I drank half of the tequila in Quintana Roo.
Kelly Maher:That wasn't working for you after a while, yeah.
Bob Bosse:I've actually, you know, put on weight for so many tacos, you know, so it's time to get on with the next phase of our lives right?
Kelly Maher:Because we've still got plenty of life to live.
Bob Bosse:Absolutely so. Tell me about the, what you're involved with. I know that you're involved with the biblioteca. Tell me about the. Tell me what the biblioteca is first and who they serve and why it's here.
Kelly Maher:Sure, hegabe Biblioteca which, by the way, biblioteca is the Spanish word for library is a really special place here in Acomal and it's originally was the very first public school for Acomal and then over time, school was built across the highway and the actual Pueblo and not on the beach side, and then it became a lending, it became a library, basically for kids, and these two women got a box full of books that for children that were in Spanish, and and loan them out to children, and, and that's how it started 35 years ago it has morphed into being really the heartbeat of the community. The director Kaori knows all of the families in the Pueblo. She knows the one struggling the most, she knows the ones with special needs, children, she knows when someone loses their job and she has her finger on the pulse of everything. And so we technically provide after school and summer school programming for the children of the Pueblo, everything from arts to language, science, psychology, sustainability. You know, we're children three to 14 years of age and we're we're teaching them and providing them an opportunity to recognize that they can have options in their future and the girls don't have to get married and pregnant at 16. The boys don't have to consider leaving and escaping to the States or joining the cartels somewhere or something like that, that with education and finding their passions and giving them a little bit of extra guidance that they really can realize their dreams. And the beauty of that is, then they're not only pulling themselves up, they're pulling their entire extended families up as well. And so we're changing lives. We truly are changing lives in the Pueblo and yeah, we do it poco a poco, bit by bit.
Bob Bosse:Yeah, absolutely, and you know I don't. A lot of listeners probably aren't familiar with what Acomol is or what Acomol looks like. It's a small community and it's very poor. I mean, it's very, very poverty, like if you're from the United States, you've never seen poverty on this level before, right, you know. So yeah, and it just emphasizes how important a service like heck I'll be bibliotech it is.
Kelly Maher:It is, and we don't get any funding from the government at all not the local, state or federal Mexican government so everything's donation based. We have a US 501C3. So we're an authorized nonprofit in the US and so that's a benefit that we can offer to people who want to donate. But yeah, we do it. We do it all on a shoestring budget and lots of passion and lots of commitment and you know you've helped us out. You know your wife, sherry, is a constant. She started English classes and teaches the kiddos English.
Bob Bosse:It's an impressive thing that you guys have going over there, we do a lot with a little right.
Kelly Maher:Oh my God.
Bob Bosse:Yes, well, I shot some video of their Christmas program, but they were showing off all of the stuff that they learned recently. They're learning best practices and riding bikes.
Kelly Maher:They have to learn how to repair their bikes and to maintain and learn maintenance on their bikes. Yeah, the life skills that we teach these children is just amazing. And it's, you know, our director and we have two part-time teachers, one of whom, davide, actually has a degree in childhood psychology, and so that knowledge that he brings to the table and teaching children how to deal with whether it be bullying or self-esteem, or I mean, he's just tremendous at you know, what he can impart to the kids.
Bob Bosse:So tell me how you, what do you think that having that available and having those programs available means to the town of Acoma?
Kelly Maher:It's. It changes the town and we're not just the library. You know we have expanded and there are a number of other things that we do, and all under the Hecabay Biblioteca umbrella. But we do an annual art festival where we paint murals. We invite artists to come in from around the world and they paint murals and so they create this happy environment for the pueblo, for this sad, poor little pueblo, but all these beautiful murals that exist in the area and they actually attract tourists. We will be opening a water park this year in the pueblo for the children because it's so difficult for them to access the beach. Even though beaches here are public, it's private property a lot of times that blocks you from being able to access it and there's a big old, crazy highway between them and any of.
Bob Bosse:even if they could get across.
Kelly Maher:there's a big old nutso highway, A very scary highway and the beaches close, technically, at 5 pm. That's when the parents most of the parents stop working, so it's not like the children can even go in the evening. So we're building a water park with donations from some generous people and we're just waiting for the power company to hook everything up now and then we can flip the switch. But so there's so much that we do. We do spay neuter clinics, we do an annual free health assessment for the adults in the community, so everything that we do is about giving back, empowering, creating a sense of pride and a sense of ownership in the community, and because of that, the Acomal Pueblo looks better now than it has in the past. And you know, in order to have a building on, you know, painted with a mural, you have to sign an agreement in terms of you can't have garbage and litter sitting around, and so you know it creates this snowball effect of creating this beautiful looking little community and with happy faces, right, I mean, these children are amazing. They have so little and yet so little will make them happy. And an accomplishment, a simple accomplishment of completing an art project or you know, or going on a field trip and gives these kids so much joy.
Bob Bosse:Right, something they would never have the opportunity to do were it not for the library.
Kelly Maher:But we've got children. Now we have two young adults that are at the University of Iowa to lead, both getting degrees in graphic art design.
Bob Bosse:That's amazing.
Kelly Maher:And because we've sort of adopted them under our Acomal Arts program. They've shown the propensity and the talent and the willingness to do what it takes and we found donors to support them. Yeah, and you know, that's going to change the lives of those families.
Bob Bosse:So where do you find your donors and do you have like a website or something that people can go to and find out more?
Kelly Maher:Yes, we do. We have heckabayorg. You can find us on Facebook if you search heckabay as well. We take donations on both and, yeah, you know it's outreach. We use a lot of social media for outreach. We have a quarterly newsletter that we send out. You can sign up for it if you go to our website. As you know, I tap into the community here that we live in, our neighbors, a lot asking for help, and as do the other board members who are involved too, and you know it's all about just once we tell our story and once someone comes and visits us, once you're hooked. Yeah, at that point you just can't say no, and whether that's does not have to be financial donation. It can be volunteering, it can be. We've got an Amazon wish list and you can go buy something off that wish list and have it shipped down to us.
Bob Bosse:And you have a bazaar where they take people people clear out their closets around here.
Kelly Maher:All of you guys love when I say, yes, come on and bring all your things. Yeah, and it's phenomenal. That provides, it's a big fundraiser for us. It allows the local population to buy products, you know, products that we bring down, that we spend sometimes hundreds of dollars on, and they can pay, you know, just mere pesos for good quality clothing, good quality household goods, furnishings, etc. And so, you know, it allows the local population to be able to take their hard earned money and buy some fuel quality. And and again, it's a fundraiser for us. So, yeah, everybody wins with that type of scenario.
Bob Bosse:And I will say, having worked a little bit with with the director there, Kairi, she makes a lot happen with very little right. She's amazing. She throws nothing out. I know that she's well known for that.
Kelly Maher:Yes, she is yes, and I'll tell you early on.
Bob Bosse:I'll tell you a quick story.
Kelly Maher:I was over there and she was cutting up some threadbare white towels that one of the hotels had donated to her, and I mean they were threadbare. I've thrown away much better looking towels than what she was cutting up and she was turning them into paint canvases for the kids so they could paint on. And when I saw that I said you know what? I'm no longer qualified to determine what is trash and what is treasure. Right, I'm bringing you a lot more things than I have brought you in the past. You decide what to throw away, because I can no longer make that decision. I've thrown away things of value, right that she repurposes. I mean it's lovely, acomal, you know, is the land of the turtles. I mean that's what the Mayan name is about, and so we really try to live sustainably here and she embraces that to such a great degree with repurposing everything that's given to her, you know, and turning it into a project for the children and a learning experience.
Bob Bosse:She personifies sustainability more than anybody I've ever met.
Kelly Maher:She does, and you know, and Kory is Japanese, right, she comes from living on an island where you have to live that way right. So she brings that mindset here to the bibliotech and is just wonderful.
Bob Bosse:We're blessed to have her. Just an example of the amazing people you meet over at HECABE the amazing experiences you can have over there.
Kelly Maher:Yeah, yeah. I encourage everyone if you come to visit this area, definitely stop by and see the kids.
Bob Bosse:Absolutely. And visit the Pueblo in Acomal and you get to see. The first thing you're going to notice is the poverty, but you are going to go through there and you're going to start seeing the artwork and you're going to start seeing the things that are going on there and it's truly amazing. It's a great experience, yeah it really is.
:And it's a special place we live in.
Bob Bosse:If you had a list of things that you would suggest to people considering looking to retire and move to Mexico, what would those be?
Kelly Maher:Ask yourselves some questions. Are you curious, are you inquisitive, are you patient? Living in a foreign country can be challenging. Some of us have transitioned Easier than others have. We've watched people not make the transition and have already gone back to the states. So you really need to sort of dig deep and understand who you are and how, how you'll meet those challenges if you meet them with the right attitude. It's an incredible, eye-opening opportunity that really expands your worldview and your heart. So that's that, that would be my advice absolutely very good.
Bob Bosse:And what advice would you have for people looking For fulfillment and retirement?
Kelly Maher:I'll pass along the advice that was given to me just be retired for the first year. Don't don't jump into every project and everything I don't recommend spend every day on the beach drinking, but, but just be retired. But but start paying attention and see what's around. And and then also, you know, you've got to listen to yourself, right? So I a lot of self-reflection. I think that's important. You know we're we're thrust into an entirely different phase in our lives where we don't know who we are anymore, right? You know, I very much had fully defined who I was with my career and Without having that, I had clients who had bets that I would be back in 18 months, that there was no way I could remain retired. They've all lost those bets. I've found that next phase in my life. I found the fulfillment, I found the joy in the happiness, and. But you've got to be open to it, you've got to be accepting of it and, yeah, go for it, all right thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. This has been great. I've enjoyed it.
Bob Bosse:In each episode of expats like us, we're gonna teach you a new Mexican slang word. This is something you may not find in your phrasebook or your online Spanish class or your Spanish app or wherever you're learning your Spanish. Instead, this is a term used primarily by Mexican Spanish speakers. Today's word is Cheeto cheeto. Thank you, Erica Kovalsky. From Mi Vida Margarita, tell us what cheeto means. Awesome, awesome. Tu carro esta chido you use that in a sentence You have an awesome car, okay, chedo, chedo. I think I've heard that you know Moving around in Mexico a little bit, but I guess I never knew what it meant. So it must be good news if somebody's saying cool.
:Yes, that is awesome.
Bob Bosse:Cheeto Gracias. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's topic. Just look up Xpats. Like Us on Facebook or send us an email at xpatslikeuscom. You can also see the video version of today's discussion and all of our discussions on our YouTube page. Follow, like, subscribe and leave us a review. Thank you to today's guest, kelly Maher. Thanks also to co-producers Chris and Erica Kowalski. From Me, vita Margarita and my wife, sherry Bussey. Most of all, thank you for tuning in to Xpats Like Us and thank you for interacting with us on social media. Next time we'll bring you more first-hand information about your international move. And until then, remember our homes are not defined by geography or one particular location, but by memories, events, people and places that span the globe.
:Oh justice, where did you run to? Really great to come back, cos I've been missing you. And love, sweet love. I could use a hand, but no one else can hear me love. No one else can hear me love. I know you understand. Sweet love, make yourself known. Sweet love, come on back home, sweet love. Let your light shine bright. Sweet love freedom comes tonight. Sweet love freedom comes tonight. I'm taking my place in life With a long line of people. It's a long time we're coming and I never stop believing I will never. I'll be there. Make yourself known, sweet love. Come on back home, sweet love. Let your light shine bright. Sweet love freedom comes tonight. Sweet love, make yourself known. Sweet love, come on back home, sweet love. Let your light shine bright. Sweet love freedom comes tonight. Sweet love freedom comes tonight. Sweet love freedom comes tonight.
