Come to My Window
CLICK HERE –> Guitar Girl Magazine Fall 2021 Issue
Come to My Window
by Kathryn Cloward
When Guitar Girl Magazine publisher Tara Low told me Melissa Etheridge was going to be on the cover of this issue, my mind immediately bolted to the melody of her hit song, “Come To My Window.” Then, as the next few days went by, every time I thought about what I wanted to write for this article, I found myself singing her lyrics, “Come to my window. Crawl inside. Wait by the light of the moon. Come to my window. I’ll be home soon.”
During one of those vocal sequences, I had a beautiful light bulb aha moment, realizing the concept of “my window” was what I was sitting with most. I envisioned my window like a portal to my truth, my being, and wondered what someone else was seeing and experiencing with access to that portal. And more importantly to my wandering mind, what was I willing to show them? What am I willing to show you? Am I even open to the idea of allowing you the opportunity to come inside and actually know me?
Sidebar for a moment. Yes, I am aware that the iconic love song’s lyrical story was more about a lover coming over and experiencing the freedom of that love. Yet isn’t that the beauty of a song’s artistry? You can listen to a song a thousand times and hear something different each time, extracting meaning and symbolism for your own journey within the resonance. It can be by way of feeling the whole song or having a billboard size aha moment with one captivating lyrical line—all of which can certainly shift and reshape as time goes on.
Instead of attaching myself to the resonance of a lover’s meaning at this phase of my journey, the melody of “Come To My Window” has my mind streaming with the awareness that I am at a new phase of my life. I’m in renewal of deeper discernment about what truly being seen feels like to me and what feels safe and not safe.
We are in hyper-exposed times. Social media has connected us to one another and also created an interesting portal into what matters most to people—or what we perceive to be so based on what’s presented. To each their own, as I have found social media to be an interesting experiment.
My truth is that I am a really private person. But I wasn’t always so private. I used to publicly process a lot on social media and that wasn’t always so wise. But I had to learn. I got burned and burned myself a few too many times and realized, damn girl, shut that door, close that window—CLOSE THE CURTAINS—and get back to honoring your privacy again.
I remember about nine years ago, I was writing a book about my life when I came to a very clear awareness that I did not want those stories to be the stories I was telling for the next ten years. I knew I had more life to live and more wisdom to gain, and that moment in time was NOT the version of me I wanted to cement in print. That was not the window I wanted to be open for all to see, so I stopped writing the long-winded explanation of me and shut it all down.
That’s when writing songs starting stirring within me again, after many years of that creative portal being closed. And soon I came to realize that songwriting is my window.
Through songwriting, I invite you into my world—into my inner being. My heart and life experiences are revealed in a tapestry of wordplay. Through songwriting, I am open.
Through songwriting, I invite you to come to my window and see me. And perhaps within that invitation is an opportunity for reflection—to see yourself, too. The portal of opening up to feeling music and hearing lyrical stories allows us an opportunity to experience resonance with each other and while we are all different, some experiences and feelings align.
There is a window invitation awaiting all of us—an offering of our being to the world if we are willing to be open to it. I think that’s what we’ve gained over the years through Melissa Etheridge’s musical journey. She’s given us windows to see her and to see ourselves. The window of watching her own the stage with her guitar. The window of hearing her soulful empowerment revealed with lyrical power. The window of watching a woman in her own process be open, daring, and vulnerable. The window perhaps we all needed to see what was possible for ourselves to know we, too, could rock the stage of our lives.
None of us have the same vantage point, for we all experience and perceive from our own awareness. Yet when we open up the window of our being and share with others, whatever we are willing to share, it is through that opening of being seen that we connect deeper to ourselves.
What’s your window?