Harmonizing with Strangers: Letting in the Unexpected

A friend of mine recently told me that I need to share more about things that are happening during my travels. Not just intellectual ideas and spiritual findings and so on and so on but real-world things that are happening to me and for me in these countries I travel into. I'll start with this one. Recently I was in a country (I will leave said country anonymous as I have many many concerns around issues of safety and security while traveling and what to share and what not to share) and I went for a stroll through their capital city. I'm walking through this huge immense area -although maybe it's just huge and immense to me- and I see a restaurant I like. I decide to walk past it but then double back when I change my mind and try some of their food. First things first, it is fantastic ... but all in all, it left me slightly unsatisfied. Not dissatisfied mind you, just still hungry for something more, culture-wise.

I leave the restaurant and continue my stroll through the street. The city isn't much unlike many of the major cities in many other countries I have had the fortunate pleasure of dipping my toes into the water of. In any case, I cross a street at a red light and I look to my left where a gentleman who is sitting in front of a building looks over to me and eagerly begins to wave at me. I say nothing and do nothing, just continuing on my journey. But low and behold, as my curiosity gets the better of me, I turn around and go back having decided I will engage the individual instead. I find out he owns a small tattoo parlor, and we quickly become acquainted. After connecting on social media, I venture back to my hotel slightly more satisfied. I had made a new friend! Now the real fun begins when I drop by the store later that week. He's not there but he reaches out to me that afternoon through social media, and I offer to come by and do some karaoke together. He's up for it, I'm up for it, and I bring my karaoke machine (I travel with one in my suitcases. It's not too big but also isn't tiny and packs a powerful punch) and the microphone that came with it and show up at the place.

Here's where things get really interesting because by now, the gent knows I do vocals and write lyrics and sing songs and before you know it, I am getting roped into a mini performance, way beyond just the karaoke I had agreed to, right there at the edge of the road between the store and the street. They’ve put on a song I don’t recognize, and I am already in the midst of freestyling and making something up on the spot although it begins to feel natural, if it hadn’t already, as I move into performing a couple of my own songs for the listening and viewing pleasure of everyone in this community coming by along with shop owners nearby coming outside to video on their phones and camera. Here's the thing that made me realize just how far I really have come when it comes to the skills I’m building in and with performing ... I just keep going. People have to stop at the red light (the same one I had walked past earlier) and they obviously can hear me singing as they sit in their cars and on their motorcycles … I just keep going. People who are across the street can hear me and I can tell I now have their attention … I just keep going. It doesn’t stop when they show up and that to me will have become a major milestone if you are intent on doing what you love with and for others.

Now, in the moment, I'm not thinking about it, but as I write about it after the fact, it's obvious to me how far I've come because I can be sure there is a different version of me that would never in a million years have been capable of this. That is, being put on the spot, not expecting things were going to go this way, but being able to go with it and create something new, essentially, from scratch. That gentleman on some level I'm sure was also just going with the flow but the way everything worked out, it seamlessly transitioned into me doing what I do best, not just for fun on my part but for publicity for both myself and for this tattoo store I had come into contact with. I am sure there are people that heard me that day who I remember starting to smile and laugh and enjoy the show if even for a moment that undoubtedly will have returned to that store all because they saw someone who didn't care what other people were thinking and was just having fun and engaging in what they loved to do with the outside world; bringing this store hopefully more business, more engagement, and more enthusiasm for moving forward with in a world where the hustle and bustle can't stop and won't stop, not even when you do.