New York’s blizzard of ’06 brought 30 inches (75 cm) of snow to the City. I was living in New York’s Lower East Side. Transportation was impossible, but you could walk. Given it was Saturday night, I headed up to one of my favourite live music venues hoping someone, anyone, would play.
The headliners were stuck somewhere in the snow. A New York City stand-in, “The Local”, had been called. They brought a copy of their CD. “Just Show Up” for anyone who made it.
Their first song and words reached me then as they do again this morning. “I’ve got more faith than I know what to do with, sometimes it just gets in my way.”
The music and words that night etched themselves on my heart and have stayed with me ever since. As I look forward this morning, I find myself revisiting the old but still relevant lessons of that evening.
One needs to be present to receive the full experience. It was a strange walk to Living Room. Nobody was out. I was alone on the dark streets of New York. The only company with me was the crunch of snow with my steps and the unique silence in a heavy snowfall. The three-block walk was an experiential lesson in being present and open to everything that followed.
One may think one knows. When this knowledge is combined with experience, the result is far more than the sum of the parts. Even now, as the album plays in the background, I am taken back to that night, the cold, wind, snow, warm, relationship, and extraordinary sense of hope.
Life is never about winning. It is a journey filled with choices. That night there were 7 or 8 of us in the audience. We had an amazing time! To anyone not there, I would respond to distant observations with Paul’s words; “They pretended to know it all but were illiterate regarding life.” (Romans 1.22). Not to worry, just show up in your journey. Life is always here when one shows up.
