I did it … ten songs.  I’m proud of myself

There was a lot of tossing and turning in bed last night.  Would I do well?  Would I mess up?  Would I be happy either way?

From 9:00 am on, I sat in Lloyd Coffee Eatery, alternating between moderate terror and a sense of peace about it all.

At 10:30 I started walking to my concert venue – Eyes + More optician on the Langemunt.  I said hi to Aude and Virginie and tried to have them calm me down.  They did their best.

Lift off for my voice was scheduled for 11:00 am.  At 10:50 it started raining, pretty hard.

And my mind roamed around the thought universe.  A main one was:

I can’t sing in the wet.  It’ll ruin my microphone and amplifier

There was a spasm of delight in this: I can go home and pull the covers up to my neck once more.  However, that urge comes with the fact that my moment of breaking through, of doing something for the first time, is merely postponed.  Sort of like an exam being cancelled.

At 9:55 the torrent went from all to nothing.  Just wet pavement.

I nodded.  I put the amp and mic stand on the street, grabbed the connecting cable, turns things on … and sighed.

This is the moment

Lots of people on the Langemunt, all apparently rushing to the next sale.  The woman employee across the street gave me a sound check.  Virginie and Aude offered a thumbs up.

And I was off … starting with “It’s About Time”.  I introduced it to the moving masses this way: the world needs far more “we” and far less “me”.

The last line:

It’s about you and me together … and it’s about time

I smiled.  People floated across my field of vision.  And then it was on to the next … “Loving Her Was Easier”.

This is a love story that was, and is no longer.  The yearning for yesterday

As I rolled through my set list, I received a few smiles, and the occasional person pausing for a few seconds.  Actually, many folks seemed more taken with my sign than with my music:

I don’t want any money.  Thank you

Virginie and the woman in the store across the street said they enjoyed the songs.  I didn’t see Aude at the end.

I packed up and went for a coffee with myself.  It was a soft sitting, just starting to grasp what I had done.  I sang beautiful songs from my heart.  I got the lyrics wrong four or five times, but truly who cares?  I don’t even care, which is very cool.

***

Tomorrow I’ll tell you what happened next … because right now I don’t have any more words to share with you.  Time to rest.