Round Midnight

I stayed up until 1am last night, finding another kindred spirit in a friend who I am staying with for the moment. You know when you connect with someone on such a deep level that you see yourself in that person and vice versa? And that allows you to discover things about yourself that lay dormant, or almost too obvious to be visible? When you see it in the other, it's all of a sudden illuminated. It deepens your understanding of yourself, and solidifies your bond with this partner in soul and spirit.

Last night, it happened beneath a framed image of a Thelonious Monk record, Genius of Modern Music Volume 1. Thelonious. A reminder of the last person I opened myself up to on this level, someone who is not in my life, an experience that has pained me but has made me stronger..

A romantic would argue that the human heart has a more heightened memory than the human brain, at least in the emotional realm. The heart holds the tender receptors that make the slightest color, mention of a place or, in this case, an artist bring the sweetness and the sadness rushing back. Stored in the heart, these details map our memories and our life experiences, giving them texture and meaning.

I sit here listening now, feeling amazed at how life has imprinted another Monk memory on my heart, feeling blessed that it's a sweet one.