A Walk Through Bourbon Street
It was everywhere.
From the paned bar window to the green leaves crawling up the banister wall to the funky headdress on top of the speckled rooftop...
You couldn't tell where the music was coming from.
It felt like it was coming from the pavement, up through your legs and vibrating off of everyone around you.
The street was crowded...complete with people selling one thing or another and I couldn't decide what I wanted to see first.
It was one hell of a weekend.
I had just finished interacting with over 100 business owners and I was tired.
I was usually too busy to enjoy the scenes when I traveled, but I had some time before the day ended...and here I was...on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
One lady tried to get me to buy a string of beads.
Everyone knew what a string of beads meant in NOLA, so I declined.
Another woman found me, offered me the same...and I politely said no and kept it moving.
When a man walked up to me and asked if I wanted to buy a set, I shook my head, laughed a little and kept walking. Somehow, he was offended by that.
After walking for a bit, I came across this headdress shop.
It was hidden in a seemingly obscure alleyway away from the main street.
In my mind, the shop itself brightened the entire block.
I didn't understand it then, but...
When I saw that shop, I felt everything.
It was like looking at a painting...a work of art.
I'm not one usually moved by pieces of art, but something about it connected with me.
Although it was just a shop...selling headdresses and masks...
I was just a passerby admiring the explosion of warmth I saw and felt.
Maybe it was the tiredness speaking.
I had been to four different cities every quarter of that year and was promptly over traveling and working.
Or maybe it was something else entirely.
Perhaps it represented the masks we all wear...or the one I always wear when dealing with the public.
Maybe it was the burst of color in a place I was not expecting it.
Maybe the colors represented life in the sometimes black and white world I often create.
Whatever it was, it shook me to the core.
And every time I look at the picture I took, I see and feel the same thing.
Here's the picture...
What I remembered most from the trip was being able to enjoy the quiet.
For a moment, however small it was, I was able to find a stillness that allowed me to just sit with my surroundings and just be.
There were no decisions to make, people to interact with, or performance that was needed from me.
I was just able to be.
And I needed that.
When was the last time you were able to find that for yourself?
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