I have decided to restart an old habit that has been very useful to me in the past and I would encourage everyone to try. I used to use an app that helped me record things that I was grateful for, every day of my life. It was a very good tool in helping me focus on the good things in life and putting every day into perspective. I thought of taking up this task on my blog, as a way of committing to a great daily habit, once again, but also as a means of remembering things in my life. I will try to post every single day, though, if I look at it objectively, that is probably too much idealism for one day. :))
This week has not been the easiest ever, but I still had incredible things happening. I went to the Nick Cave concert in town and I experienced a type of compersion for complete strangers. During the concert, people very close to the stage were pulled on stage, where Nick Cave was singing and the band was playing in full force. And looking at those people’s stunned and overjoyed faces on the large screen filled me with such happiness for their experience. I put myself in their shoes for a moment, trying to imagine what it must be like to have that memory for the rest of your life: Nick Cave singing a meter away from you, looking at you, on a stage in front of hundreds and hundreds of concertgoers. And I could not help but feel incredibly happy for those folks.
But then the next day, luck struck me too. I got to the Arcade Fire concert early, hoping to see Greetings Sugar, one of my favourite bands, singing as an opening act. I missed their performance (very sad face here), but I got an unexpected upgrade to better tickets for the concert. I went from the back of the crowd, to the very front, only a few dozen meters away from where the band was playing. At first, when the bracelet was offered to me, I worried that my partner, who was joining me for the concert later on, might not get one and we would either have to see the concert separately or I would have to stay in the back. But I took a leap of faith and took the bracelet. And luckily my partner got one too!
Watching the concert so close to the stage was incredible. I have never been that close to the band during a large concert and seeing everything so clearly was overwhelming. Arcade Fire is also one of my favourite bands, and the concert was great. They played almost all of the songs that I adore, the band was full of energy and did not forget to encourage Romanian protesters who were out in Victoriei Square. Listening to the lyrics that always remind you of a certain person while that person is close to you, is pretty amazing. Not to mention that at one point, while Regine was singing my favourite song by the BAND, her husband, Win, who was playing behind her, looked at her with such love. It was a simple and full moment and I am very grateful I caught it :D.
It was incredible and I have learnt quite a few things from all of this:
– good things can happen randomly and even if change scares you, try grabbing the opportunity and seeing where it takes you
– when something good or bad happens, take a moment to process those feelings for yourself, to really think of what is happening to you
– buy tickets closer to the stage 😛
And for today I will leave you (and myself) with this:
“These days, my life, I feel it has no purpose,
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface,
Cause on the surface the city lights shine.
They’re calling at me: ‘Come and find your kind’”.
