"I don't notice the shape of things, I just take in their weight."

Music has always been a part of Sheila's story, but not everyone knows the story behind the music. At an early age Sheila learned the value of living in the moment. When she was 12 years old she was confronted with a painful reality that she might actually be living in her last moments. That's when a little girl grew up fast, when a fighter's spirit was forged, and an optimist was born. This is Sheila's song.

November 1994. Enter: A Benign Brain Tumor

Then and Now: On November 17, 1994, Sheila Swift was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. A whirlwind ensued, it seemed the worst possible news for a lively seventh grader to endure. Yet, instead of concerning themselves with worry, Sheila and her family concentrated on educating themselves about her situation and on living life. It didn't take Sheila long to throw herself into music, a passion of hers since before she can remember. They learned that the tumor (located in the center of the brain on the optic track) is surrounded by a tangle of blood vessels, possibly a healed aneurysm! Because of her peculiar MRIs, she was the only pediatric case taken on by neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Grossman (who was, interestingly enough, present in Dallas, TX at Parkland Memorial Hospital when JFK was shot in 1963. Grossman, only 30 yrs old, was the first doctor to identify the entry point in the President’s head.)

Over ten years after finding the tumor, it’s still there and they’re still just watching it! Of course there are side effects, but Sheila has learned to live with them, and laugh about them too.  

Sheila and her family greet each new day with a great big dose of gratitude, humility, humor, and praise. Sheila’s life is a testament to many things: the power of prayer, laughter being the best medicine after all, and that we were all created for something greater and nothing should stand in our way of achieving your dreams!

November 2000- February 2004. Trading One Voice for Another

After being involved in the Christian music scene as an indie artist for sometime and releasing her independent debut album in 2000, Sheila fell into a different season in her life where music took the back burner for a while. She wound up where every artist is told to pursue a back up plan: college. Funny though how her "back up plan" actually ended her right back to where her heart beats: music. At Houston Baptist University, she majored in both English and Art and took up oil painting, which she still does today. "I was in a place during those years," says Sheila, "where people I'd run into would ask me about my music and I would literally tell them 'Ah, well, that was in another life'. It was very hard for me because I had been defined as a singer my entire life, I’d even said that’s what I wanted to be since I was 5 yrs old; and here I was, away from the music, questioning whether or not I could still call myself a singer/songwriter even though I hadn't written a song in two years. I was very down on myself, I felt like I had somehow failed myself for giving up on my dream of pursuing music. So I poured my heart into the visual arts and decided I would make that my destiny. It was obvious I could not be still, I felt a tugging at my spirit to continue to create, I just couldn't do it with my old voice anymore, I had to find a new way of communicating." To view Sheila's paintings, visit Gallery279.com

March 2005- The Present. A Rebirth & A Return to the Calling

After getting married to her now guitar player, Michael Hurst, on Easter weekend of 2005, Sheila began feeling those familiar yearnings to get back on stage and get back into the life that she knows she has been called for without a doubt. Slowly, she began to understand, as she says, that "there is room for it all"! No longer would she be confined by a single definition: singer, songwriter, painter, poet, daughter, wife, and so on. "I began to think about the dualities of this world, the dualities of my God even- all loving yet all powerful. Many will argue you cannot be both. And for me, they arise out of the same place, out of the same need to create and communicate. My voice is my voice, be it on paper or canvas or in your iPod!"

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