I am writing this from Lancing, Michigan, six or seven hours away from my little home town in Canada. I’m on a mini tour, managing a Polish Canadian Hip Hop artist and I am asking myself how I got here?
How does a forty six year old father of two, a teacher of twenty years, end up on a bed at an AirBnB in Lancing, Michigan?
In a snese I have no business of being here. I should be at home, doing the regular thing, living the regular life, getting the regular thing, but I cannot. I cannot because two years ago I had an awakening. A sort of resurrection, a second chance at life.
I wasn’t living a terrible life, things we good, but my life is so much better, so much happier and I know it’s because I have let go of certain inhibitions and blew up expectations I don’t have to have of my self.
And so I am on a Hip Hop tour. In Lancing, Michigan, USA.
There are two days to go and hundred of miles as we head to Chicago and New York City and then back home again. All in four days, all in a little pickup truck, with all our luggage in a snowy cab. And all of it fantastically glorious.
That’s what dreams feel like. My dream is not to be on the road and involved with the Hip Hop scene, Polish hip hop scene to be very precise. I am an old rock n’ roller. A connoisseur of 80’s Heavy Metal music. I love a good guitar solo, spandex, high kicks, and a good scream. But I love the people I am with and the opportunity that presented itself.
I didn’t pick this opportunity. Life asked me if I wanted to be involved and the only thing that was up to me was to say yes or to say no. I said yes, and the rest is unfolding in front of my in little pieces and I have no idea where all of this is going.
Your dreams and your happiness are the same. Opportunities present themselves to you all the time, but you might be too stubborn or to set in your way, or too negative to take them. Perhaps you are afraid of failing or what would people say. There is a myriad of things that are stopping you from saying yes to things you would never have said before, but why not? Why not do different things? Take chances.
I’m not suggesting you remortgage your house and let it roll on number 15 in Las Vegas. I’m not talking about doing stupid and impulsive things. What I am saying is that I believe you know what you want out of life, and you always just put it off. Only for another day, for another week. Not yet. I’m note quite ready. Soon. Maybe tomorrow.
You put of living the life is is waiting for you and you are not better off for it. You are better off leaping into an unknown life and letting things settle where they may.
You need to come to Lansing. Your own Lansing, Michigan, USA. You need to wake up one morning, stand back, look where you are and what you are doing, and give life a little wink because there is nothing better than being here.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Chris Jolly.
https://unsplash.com/@chris_jolly
