Being Me

Everyone draws strength from something, or someone. I am no different. I have always loved the idea that life can be whole and independent, yet compact and snug in ways that most modern situations do not really allow.

As a young child I imagined myself with a full sized mechanical elephant. Big enough to hold my entire family on top, it would have room inside to carry our bags of rice and flour so that we could live anywhere. I would make him move with levers that worked his legs from the top. As a child being that high up seemed very safe and secure.

Later I lived, for a short time, in the country miles and miles from the nearest town, simply to experience the aloneness and now I choose to live with the barest of necessities because it feels right. I have been experimenting by putting my bed in the living room so that I am only heating that part of my house to see what it is like to live in a cabin. Of course I have huge windows overlooking the most beautiful country around, but it is fun to play at this.

Now tonight a friend writes that he actually lived this way for several years long ago and that fills my imagination with so much food for thought. He too had a piano, an important part of who I am. Even if I go months without touching it, the fact that it is here is important to me. My piano has been my comforter, counselor and best friend more times than I can remember. Now it is battered from being moved so many times during the past five years, but it still plays and it still satisfies a deep and primal part of me.

It’s good to know where my strengths lie and how to access them. It is even better to know that there are good and kind people out there still wanting and willing to talk to me just because I am me. I think that is important for anyone.