Sunday, January 15, 2006

Some Things You Just Know


I wasn’t meant to win the lottery. I can wish it, but I can’t wish it so. That part of my life I am totally sure of. Some things in life you just know.

I don’t go chasing after happiness either. Happiness is one of those things that, like fun, I most enjoy when it takes me by surprise. Often I don’t even realize that I’m having it until I breathe and see only smiles around. Sometimes I think back upon good times gone by and wonder if I knew they were that good when they were happening. My guess is probably not. I probably knew they were good, but not how good—who ever does?

When I was young, I thought a day without fireworks and big events was hardly there. That such days were just plain boring and only made to mark time until the next occasion came. Real life had spark and the sparkle. I needed the jolt that made me feel alive. Then I’d need to talk about it, to relive it to know it really happened, to know I had a life.

I suppose that my spirit’s gotten older. My hormones have settled just a bit. I’ve gladly let go of my youth for a small bit of wisdom and far fewer dragons to slay. These days a dirt path is more rewarding than the fast lane. The feedback is richer, deeper, longer, and more lasting. I’d easily trade my cell phone, my car, and the Internet, the television, my headphones, and computer for a few simpler, quieter things tonight.

Tonight I’d like to go to a cabin with a piano and a friend who’d play for me. I’d like to dance. I’d like to listen to the wind blow through the trees without the sounds of machines. I’d like to dance. I long for a stuffed chair at a wooden desk with a sharp pencil and a leather journal, under a bright lamp near a window in Virginia. I’d like to look out that window all day long at the horses, thinking, writing for hours until one whole and complete thought has a chance to form and be reformed.

I’d watch the horses graze, slow as the grass grows. Never once would I worry about keeping up with myself. Like a dancer I would lead and I would follow all at once.

It would be engaging and peaceful at the same time too. Some things in life you just know.

I just know. Tonight I’d like to go to a cabin with a piano and a friend who’d play for me.

I’d like to dance.
—me strauss Letting me be

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some things in life you just know

just wonderful Liz (hgus)

Anonymous said...

or you could try hugs, that might work better LOL

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a lovely 'Virginia Moment'. It is always a useful reminder for writiers ...

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Mergrl,
Hugs and dancing that would work, I know. BIG CHESHIRE CAT GRIN
Liz

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Pamela,
Welcome, and you're welcome for the Virginia Moment. I was longing for some time to think and I use those longing as writing fodder. The horses don't seem to mind and the writers seem to like it too. :)
smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

This writing of yours unfolds in the most beautifully pictorial way. It goes deeper than that though. It wakes all of the senses too.

It brings about longing, craving.

It slowed down my heart, to a mellow rhythm. It made me go, hmmmmm, in a relaxed, contented way.

I want to dance too, just as you describe it.

Anonymous said...

'Like a dancer I would lead and I would follow all at once.'

That line stood out.

Anonymous said...

Herman Melville sat at just such a desk, gazing out on a hillside that he imagined was the hump of a Great White Whale.

He sat there for a very long time.

The result of his effort was even better than winning the lottery, dont you think?

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Lori,
Thank you. Your words are always from the mind and the heart, the words of a real artist. Those words, "I want to dance." meant something very simple when I wrote them in this piece. It was a waltz I heard, a song of times long past.

I want to dance the way they did when dancing was an important thing.

I'm glad I brought your heart with me to Virginia.
Liz

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi jackal,
I like that line too. It is what dancers do without thinking about it.
smiles,
Liz

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Oh Kelley Bell,
I've never told you how I love your picture, how that look you have in that picture makes it seem that you've been thinking exactly whatever it is that your comment says. :)

Yes, Herman made his lottery from his imagination. Did it make him crazy? I'm sure he started out "unusual in his head" as the song says about me."

Thank you Kelley, for the perfect way you have of pulling just the right words and examples from your wealth of knowledge. You make a wonderful friend and I value that friendship deeply because of how knowing has helped me grow.
Liz

Anonymous said...

Tis true, our photos show our spirits. Mine as the seeker and thinker,

Yours as the shining,enlightened soul.

Anonymous said...

"These days a dirt path is more rewarding than the fast lane. The feedback is richer, deeper, longer, and more lasting."

These words stopped me in my tracks and made me look inside, in a new old place that I don't visit as often as I'd like. What a marvelous way to begin a Sunday morning. Thanks, Liz. I love reading your blog. I visit almost every da, but haven't left many comments. I'd like to more in this new year --- a resolution? Maybe. (grin) In the meantime, I have a dirt path I want to meander on for awhile.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Thank you Dawn,
Your words are a wonderful start to my Sunday morning. I'd be delighted to see you more often and to hear more of your thoughts. You write so well. I know you are a deep thinker.
smiles,
Liz

Trée said...

Liz, my eyes watered with tears of joy. You express in words and images what my heart longs for in ways beyond my ability. You write posts from my dreams, as if you were there and then delight me with your insight and wisdom and love of beauty.

I'll take that dirt path too. Barefoot down to the lake. Mist rising with the expectations of another blessed day of peace and solitude. A lone bird greets us with song. The water is clear and the air refreshes our souls without the use or need of words or thoughts. I just want to sit, to absorb, to experience the timelessness of good. And, and to know good when good is sitting beside me and not have to read about it in my memories later only to wish I had said hello when I had the opportunity.

Bless you Liz. Bless you for these gifts you leave. My life is better for them, better for you. Hugs and kisses my dear wonderful woman.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Tree,
I think we belong to a mutual inpiration society. I just knew that because this has the word dance in it that you would want to read it.

Sitting there by the water sounds nice, Trace and Dawn and the others can come too. We don't need to talk, just be.
Liz

Anonymous said...

Liz you don't need a cabin or a piano. Dance, right there, right now. (oh, and maybe set up a webcam)

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Doug,
You always make me smile. Thank you for your comments. I know your the point was a bit of quiet I don't have. Besides you'll have to pay, if I put up the webcam!

Liz

Anonymous said...

For so many days this is in my heart as well. Life has taken me here, I wonder where I will take my life next?

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

I think, Lance, that the heart and mind you own will take you onto to higher plains. I hope that wherever you go that I will always know and see you there.