“We are all like a piano,” said my Gran, “with white and black keys that represent the various aspects of our personality.” She shared this with me in my teenage years when I was battling with friendships. Recently I sat with a dear friend and listened to her struggles in friendship and I was reminded of this heart treasure that my grandmother shared with me, that I have spent hours meditating on and learning even more from it over the years.
Many of you commented on how the recent post When Friendship Ends helped you make peace with friendships that have ended, but this treasure speaks to exploring many types of friendships and to have more than one good friend and to be seeking out new friends on a regular basis.
Why? My grandmother told me that we are all like a piano and our personality and character is represented by the black and white keys on our keyboard. Every person that comes into our life, plays on our piano, touching different parts of our personality and character. She also shared that each person will play a different tune. Some rock, some jazz, some play the blues. Some play beautiful classical pieces and others cannot even make a tune, but bang away in aimless combinations. Still others play melodies we absolutely love and others play songs that jar our nerves. No one person plays exactly the same tune, everybody will play a unique tune in your life.
While they play their tune, each person touches different keys in our personality and makeup. Sometimes we enjoy the keys they touch and the tune they play, but to be honest: some more than others. Sometimes we enjoy their melody for a while: but then the tune gets stuck in our head and we don’t enjoy it anymore, or we are just sick of it. Still others don’t play that often, but when they do, aah, we are lost in happy memories and good vibrations. Then, there are some people who are absolutely forbidden to play on our piano!
No one person can play every single key on your piano. It is impossible to play every key in a tune that is enjoyable for the listener. Different people play more keys in your personality and character than others and as a result bring the very best out of you. Those that don’t play too many keys in your personality; often don’t get invited to play again!
So it is important to pay attention to the tunes people are playing on your piano and asking yourself if you enjoy their music in your life. How often you like to listen to that music and if you would like more, or less, of that music played in your life? You also need to ask if the people in your life are playing all the keys on your piano, or are their aspects of your personality and character not being played at the moment?
It is important to have people in your life that play keys on your piano that bring out the best in you, whose music you enjoy and who play the kind of stuff you want to listen too…often. It is also important that these people don’t all play similar music in your life, or touch exactly the same keys on your piano; else you will never grow, never develop a good taste in music (friendship).
Take cognizance of the fact that you play on other people’s pianos, what music are you playing and do they enjoy your tunes?
There is no such thing as a best friend, just as there is no such thing as the best song ever. We have our favorite friends, just like we have our favorite songs. Make sure you have a hit parade going, different genres of music, not just one hit single. When we limit our taste in music, like we limit our friendships, we miss out on unexplored worlds of wonder. It is important to seek out new music, otherwise our hit parade becomes a little Blah! And be realistic, you may not be on someone else’s hit parade, right now.
There is one person that plays all the keys on your piano, His name is God Almighty. Only God can do that, because He made the piano and it is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139) He knows how to play that piano for its best tunes because He designed it to play specific tunes in the world. If there are parts of your piano that are not being played by the people in your life, perhaps it is time to spend more time in His presence. Your heart may be itching to hear His tune, His tune will be the most fulfilling, His tune needs to be heard regularly, it’s a never-ending love song.
Personally, I am a grand piano. What music do you play? Please comment and tell me how this piano story helps you see things more clearly. I like to hear from my readers, you play your own tune on my piano.
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Thank you Michelle for your nourishing blog and particularly this Piano analogy, just beautiful. I have printed it for re-reading. I can now apply it to what God showed me yesterday that my husband can’t play every single key on my piano because then I wouldn’t need God.
God uses all the people in my life to play different keys and fulfill different purposes, to teach me and to talk to me. Just like Heart Treasure does weekly. Thank you for your tune that has influenced my walk with God.
Maria, Thank you for sending me feedback, I don’t always know who is listening and I am delighted to hear that I play a tune on your piano. You are so right about our husbands not replacing God in our lives, our Lord is after-all a jealous lover. Thank you for saying hello. Michelle
Very interesting blog, particulalry on a day like today when I have been so down and lonely and shedding tears. I agree that friends are extremely important in a woman’s life and I am thankful for the few I have. I just find that at my age (37) most women are married with children. This makes it hard to connect as our lives are on such different paths. I long for the love and companionship of a lifemate but for some reason God is denying me this. I am so afraid that this is how my life is gonna be forever…just needed to share this with somebody. Thank you.
Sandra, I hear you, sometimes girlfriends cannot make up for a life-mate, but they do help us stay whole. Our life-mate should play many of the keys on our piano, but no one person is ever going to be able to play them all, only the Lord can do that. Friends can play notes that a life-mate cannot, but we do so love the tunes men play. I don’t think God is denying you a life mate, He longs to give us the desires of our heart. But in His timing when it is the best thing for us. In the meantime, become the best woman for the man you are believing for, make sure the tune you play is amazing to listen to. Nothing is forever, God changes everything He touches, He always has a new thing up His sleeve for us. So you keep changing into God’s kind of girl and God will meet your efforts. Nothing is impossible. Thanks for sharing with me.
Wonderful! I want to keep it and read it over and over again. I never thought of friendship in that way. Lovely analogy.
Love,
Lilian
Thank you Lilian for your feedback, it means a lot to me. It assuredly is a picture to meditate on for a while, it explains so much of the struggle of friendships to me. Thank you for being a part of my life.