salut!!!!

A darling friend and musician invited me to a screening of a documentary he had been a part of. The piece was spectacular. Scenes of Kenya drowned my heart and for the hour that the documentary played, I was in the womb of life itself.

Green. Lush. Alive.

After the documentary there was a cocktail. There is an impenetrable unease that chokes the air at cocktails.  

Strangers .  Awkward laughter.  Need to leave.

So we left. My friend, his cabby and an acquaintance I had been introduced to at the screening.  There was pleasant conversation in this new location. Familiar faces flashing smiles and a spiraling air of intoxicating laughter.

Music. Music. Music.

When I finally got home, my spirit was light. It felt like I had been soaked in life and come out new. I was refreshed at 5 o’clock in the morning.I watched a jealous sun outshine a modest moon. Dawn washed over my fears and my skin shivered in the ecstasy. In that time,I thought of the snake I had promised my new friend-formerly an acquaintance and snake collector- I would have wrapped around my neck by April. I imagined how brave he must be to have decided to move countries just so he can follow a dream. I thought about how rich his experiences looked when he painted his past. Only 24, travelled the world with no money and still chasing ideas . I wanted it.

Life. Courage. Experience.

That evening, settled in the same bed that shared in my fanciful thoughts, I opened an old copy of  Dickens’ Great Expectations.  There, a small hand written note that I had never seen fell. In it, I found a precious thought to sleep to.

‘Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience’

Paulo Coelho.