Random Thoughts of Amy Potts

Ask most people in the upper mid-west how they feel about winter and they will say they hate it.  When you ask them why they don't move south the response is usually because they enjoy the changing of the seasons.  In the north the changing of seasons can often be dramatic.  One day you are adjusting the air conditioning and the next the fireplace must be lit. One day you are wearing short sleeves and the next a sweatshirt.  In fact sometimes this can happen all in a days time.  Heater by morning and air conditioning by night.  That is how it is in the mid-west and that is what I love about it.  I love dramatic weather changes.  I love thunderstorms in summer and blizzards in winter.  I love a warm spring rain and I love the fragrance of autumn and the crunching of leaves under foot.  I love the change of seasons as they pertain to nature. There is only one season I don't really enjoy and that is the middle of summer when the heat and humidity are on.  As my husband puts it, we

"Sometimes I wanna go, where everybody knows my name".  Everyone remembers the theme song from the hit television series, "Cheers".  Right now you are probably at least humming this tune in your head, possibly singing it out loud.  Sometimes that is where I want to be. I want to be in the presence of my friends and family to laugh and to hear about their lives. On a hectic day when my job is overwhelming and I am mentally exhausted I need a refuge.  I need a place where maybe nobody knows my name.  I need to be alone.  On days like this I will often drive to my church to play the piano in a dark sanctuary where nobody but me hears my prayers.  I begin to play whatever comes to mind.  Most of the time it is music that just flows from within, to my hands on the keys.  It resonates from the strings what my pastor referred to once as, "piano prayers".  I had never really thought of it that way before.  But when I think about the emotions that are welling up