Beautiful Days

It was a softly warm day, and the smooth fabric of her pale yellow sun dress felt cool against her skin. Her bare feet squishing into the luxurious carpet as she moved towards the piano.

This old piano, with the dark wood and gold lettering. Worn ivory keys yellowing from age.

This piano she had filled with her hope, her future, her sorrow, frustration, and even anger.

Her love and passion.

She remembered the tears she'd dropped on the keys as she played, her fingers brushing them away as the beautiful melodies strung along behind her.

Each feeling passing through her delicate fingers into the keys of this old piano.

She sat down on the familiar bench. She'd spent hours on this bench, it had been given to her by an old piano teacher in exchange for walking the woman's dog.

She gently placed her fingertips on the worn keys.

It had been years since she'd seen this piano.

Years since she'd even made music.

But her beautiful hands remembered, and she began to play.

Quiet and hesitantly she began to play.

It was intoxicating

Each note filled the room, one after the other and she began to forget.

Forget the cumulative hours she sat stubbornly in front of this piano refusing to practice another minute. She began to forget the words of her parents about how she was wasting her talent, and all the times she'd lied about her practice hours to her teacher.

She forgot all those nights when she wasn't allowed to go to high school football games or the movies because she hadn't practiced that day. And as she played she began to remember.

Remember why she loved the piano and why she started playing in the first place.

She remembered how she loved the way the music flowed through her, and what it felt like to create something beautiful.

Her fingers and wrists settled in and relished the familiar movement.

This bench and this piano felt more like home than any of the many houses she'd grown up in.

Throughout her turbulent life, this piano remained.

And she loved it.

And even still, the flowing melody of piano music stirs in her soul a sweet longing for days past, and a new hope for days still to come.