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When I was a boy, living often alone with my dad who was raising me as a single parent while simultaneously having to work most of the time of each waking day… I had two connections that helped me to survive… if not thrive.
The first forever friend, was and is my connection to nature. I wandered the woodlands and waters of my southern homeland and made friends with songbirds, green snakes, rising fish and tall trees. I did and still do speak to Nature and Nature speaks to me. Without my connection to Nature, I would cease to have any reason to keep breathing.
Secondly, when my mother walked out on us when I was 12… (I’ve often thought this was the only kind act she ever inadvertently did…), my poor broken hearted father knew that I’d have to be alone a lot of the time, so he gave me a guitar and taught me three chords- G, C, and F.
Then he said, “This guitar and the music you play will always be your friend.”
He was right.
Music has been my other forever friend.
When my father died I shed a few tears… picked up my guitar and played the song that I considered to be “our song”… “The Captain and the Kid” by Jimmy Buffet. Then I put down my guitar, wiped my tears, and never played guitar or shed another tear for three years.
I’m starting to play again.
Things are going back to my childhood ways in this final childhood chapter of my current mortal life.
I’m conversing with songbirds and lizards more often. I’m complimenting wildflowers and wispy clouds in the Texas skies. I’d rather sit on a stone and watch a river flow than any show that’s “streaming.”
And I am playing and listening to the Blues because it makes me feel happy.
Never let the music go silent in your Soul.
Namaste’ Y’all
The Being Currently Known as Steve