The Third Chair

In this case the third chair was for me

I had three chairs in my house: one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

Henry David Thoreau

I have many, many chairs. So many that we recently gave away eight or more to friends, relatives and the Salvation Army, [my favorite kind of army]. This feels pertinent right now because I am in need of the third chair. After four days I am still trapped at the end of our country road with no hope of any society for at least two more days. Happily for me I have grown fond of my solitude and my home that's being organization and cleaned. At this rate I will even be filing the papers in my in- basket. Horrors.

Many psychologists contend that your personality is basically set in stone by the time you're two years old. In our family we're mostly extroverts. I'm one of six kids and I'm not shy, never have been. I'm also fond of saying "I have three siblings that make me look shy." These day that sentence could be revised because it is more like four siblings that make me look shy. As I age I have become more introverted, and quieter. This isn't supposed to happen. I think this is because my husband lives elsewhere and I listen for a living.

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?      Jean-Jaques Rousseau  

As any of you know that are following the blog, I am snowed in and no hope of company for a couple more days. I desire company, or society as Thoreau would say and since I have none I have gone about making my home and my cat my company. But I find I need more. So what has happened that partially filled that third chair is my dear friend Meg has called me every day, sometimes twice daily and requested when I took off on my cross country skis to feed the horses or to just jaunt on down the road that I call her back to say I survived. I loved that. Being the independent sort this never occurred to me as a safety measure as well as a pleasure having to check in with a friend.

I learned from Meg and I started to do my own call out, and though it doesn't replace the company of a warm human body, it is comforting. Both sons, my daughter in laws, the grand kids, sisters all heard from me. Naturally I was also in constant touch with my husband as he was a bit worried about me. "Never fear, I thrive in the isolation as long as I have my cat, my books, food, water" I said. What I learned in addition was the value and importance of the voices from the other end of the phone.

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