Free Spirit at the Block Party
There were families, food, beverages, games, a live band, and free-spirited seniors shimmying and shaking like there wasn’t tomorrow or a soul or an entire neighborhood watching—like me watching. One woman in particular’s dancing was mesmerizing—fluid, unafraid, and total commitment. She embodied freedom.
I stood back alone for a moment and took it all in. Things like this penetrate me differently than “before.” Before life came crashing—before the world of hurt.
I’ve boasted of being a “people watcher, evidence gatherer, and dot connector” for some time now, but now, it’s different. The penetration, now, makes me tear up even more than before. Watching life being lived and loved is a precious, beautiful thing.
I saw a man sitting nearby. He was wearing a veteran’s baseball cap like my friend Lou used to wear, and he was in a Jazzy Scooter (electric wheelchair) like my dad used to tool around at the end of his life here on earth.
Without concrete permission from my head, my feet walked directly over to the man. For the past few years, I’ve been socially challenged, bordering on inept.
“Thank you for your service.”
His eyes widened, and he flashed a beautiful smile.
His name is Bob, and he’s 93. We spoke briefly, and my social risk paid off; I made a friend.
Bob fought for our freedom.
I walked away from Bob, and not a beat later, I came alongside another human on the other end of life’s spectrum. She was walking alone, tears streaming down her face. I never got her name, but she was two years old and missing one dad and one big brother who, I surmised, was supposed to be watching her. She said it would be okay if I held her hand as we searched. She risked, too.
I’m guessing she didn’t quite like this kind of freedom.
If there had been a drone overhead that could pick up the internal and the external, it would have captured hundreds of souls from one end of the spectrum to the other, present and in community—loving and living their challenging, vulnerable, weathered, tender, simple, complicated, beautiful lives.
My engagement was subtle, but these moments filled my heart…and the free spirit is me.