You know those moments when you are so inspired to be alive and be yourself? The self that you rarely are because you rarely have the courage or creativity to be…I had one of those moments recently when I went to Chicago. The city itself is so beautiful and culturally-rich that it inspires imagination from the moment you see the skyline as you approach the city. Once in the city, we went to a vintage fair filled with old treasures that brings one back to the past and back to oneself. After that we went to Wicker Park and perused all the cute boutiques and watched the people go by, including two French Bulldogs side by side and a dog tied up to a post that had a little mohawk, and ate some  fancy ice cream from the future. I don’t know what it is about being in the city and constantly surrounded by interesting people and sights that inspires imagination and creativity…but it works every time for me.

We finished the day by going to see Blind Pilot in concert. Going to concerts is one of my favorite things, because seeing live music, for me, brings out in me everything that I am and want to be. Cheezy, albeit, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. I can’t forget the mild alcohol consumption that always makes for a good time. Am I right? I mean, let’s be honest. Anyway, seeing music being played makes me want to play an instrument and be in a band. My friends and I keep saying we’re going to start a band, with banjos and all haha, but it’ll probably never happen. I would play the keyboard, I think…the point is, that having the ability to elicit that emotion out of people that music does would be such a fun life pursuit.

Back to being oneself, we get so caught up with living our lives primarily surrounding our responsibilities, we seldom have the time or the energy to break out of that and simply live. Those few glimpses of ourselves that we get on occasions like this, being in the city and experiencing music (for me), or whatever it might be for you, may be all we get. And we cannot overlook them, as they occur so rarely.