Several months after my mom passed away in 2002, my dad started clearing their house out. I had just moved into my very own first home, and I had very different taste than my parents. I didn't really want much of the furniture because I wanted to create my own stamp on my home. I did inherit the family piano, though. It lives in the media nook in my home office (which in many homes might be called a living room.)

This piano lived at my folks' house for the better part of my young life. I never fully learned to play. My sister and I took some lessons as kids but we didn’t love it, so we didn’t stick with it. We played it in little spurts and occasionally had friends over that could play beautifully. I took a piano class in college, which I really enjoyed and learned quite a lot. My parents offered it to me then but I think the piano may have been bigger than the place I lived at the time, I couldn’t take it. Everything I learned from that class faded from lack of use.

For several years my girls would poke at it though neither of them was taking formal lessons for piano playing. We always enjoyed Zia's custom made serenades (here’s one from when she was 4 that cracks me up!) and she’s now taking lessons. Until very recently, Sophia preferred only guitar, they are both starting to play it more and more and it makes my heart feel really happy. I really like having the piano around. It reminds me of my childhood home. It reminds me of my parents. It's a nice thing to get to build our own home around.