I Like Being Alone

When I was a kid, I had a children's book called I Like Being Alone by Betty Ren Wright. In it, a child in a large noisy family builds herself a treehouse so she can have a space away from everyone else. She discovers that she likes having a private place where she can think, read, and just be quiet by herself. After a frightening night sleeping outside in the middle of a storm, however, she realizes that she appreciates the company of other people too, and learns to balance the two aspects of her personality.

I thought of that today when I was linked to a video of a poem by Tanya Davis, called How To Be Alone. I found it comforting, interesting and inspiring. No matter whether you are single or in a relationship, it's always good to be alone sometimes.

I'm going to go enjoy the rest of my birthday!

Mature love,

K

Headphones

I was walking home tonight, listening to some music on my big Sony headphones (they double as earmuffs in the winter), when I caught the eye of a man about my age with taped horn-rimmed glasses and headphones like mine. As I got closer, he stopped and took off his headphones and said, "Let's swap." I put mine on his head and he put his on mine, and we stood there in the middle of the sidewalk looking at each other. I realized then that he would try to know me based on the music that happened to be playing, and that I would do the same. He got to listen to the best part of 23 Hanashi by Yoko Kanno - when the dissonant notes finally fall into place and become something consonant - and I felt the beat of Paradise by Mickey Factz reach down and defibrillate my heart. We took our own headphones back, and he said, "If you're ever walking around with your headphones on like this, we should do this again," and I feel adamantly the same.

This is the kind of thing I always want to happen, but rarely ever does. I'm glad he was brave enough to take off his headphones and stop me, because I have a wonderful memory and something to look forward to as I run around the world with my own soundtrack pumping in my ears.