A blank wall suggests many things: opportunity, decorative potential, empty location. A blank wall also infers questions about your identity. Watch.
We had a busy day on Monday. Since it was Memorial Day we went for our annual 5 km race in Elma, Washington, but instead of running it myself, since I was unprepared, I watched Skyler Sorsby, my racing buddy, collect first place with a 22:00 time. Once the race was run we headed home to collect the children, because... The previous Friday we learned, from a phone call Beth made, that,after 12 weeks in process, Amy and Bentley's passport applications are "suspended." Thanks to a phone call, due to God's taking care of us, we got a Seattle appointment for this coming Wednesday to "petition" the issues. All this means that after the race, we went home and had to gather the kids to go to Centralia so that Amy and Bentley could get NEW passport photos. I guess when they suspend a passport application, the pictures are also suspended? Who makes this stuff up? In addition we all need more passport photos for our Korean visas.
Concurrent to all these events, we had to be out of our home so our purchasing friends could show their/our house off to their family. At the same time Amy was at a friends house and Kylie had a friend staying over at our house. The weekend carried a lot of emotions and overlapping this was a layer of anxiety for the piano recital coming up next Saturday.
So when we got home Monday evening, after the race, after the photos, after dropping friends off at their home, after driving in the hot car most of the day, we walked into our "home" and Kylie went to sit at the piano to relieve some stress by sitting and playing the piano ... which was not there.
Kylie burst into tears. She sobbed for the loss of a friend: her piano. She sobbed for the loss of familiarity and routine; the piano has been sitting in the same place for 4 years-as long as Kylie's been played piano! She cried for the suddenness of change: she had no idea the piano was even being picked up soon.
She said, with greater revelation than she intended, that playing the piano was part of her identity. She meant that the presence of the piano and herself playing it was a kind of reference in her life. Practicing was something she was made to do each day and it was a skill that she is well developing. Being a "piano" player was something that she thought of herself as and something she was knwo to do and be good at by others. Suddenly this component of her life is extracted and while she still exists
So with a week to go before a piano recital Kylie and Amy have no piano.