Ha!

My first Friday Art Night in downtown

________ and my sister, Q., makes me walk
down a street off of _______ leading to
Boringville Lane, saying, when I complain,
"Just come this way, trust me, there are some
amazing things on this street!"
I, having lived in the town for the past several
years, and she, only visiting now and again, do
not trust her. "There's nothing even remotely
interesting on the street you are taking me on,"
I fiercely complain. But she walks farther ahead
of me and I sullenly follow. Until I stop, in the
middle of street, a street in which I see nothing
remotely interesting ahead of me, and I close
my eyes.
I close my eyes and shut down the thoughts of
pessimism that are screeching about, hither and
yon, in my mind, and I determine that
something amazing will happen walking this
way. I can't fathom what it might be, I say to
myself, but it will be something. And it will be
amazing!

And when I open my eyes, I find my sister no

longer standing beside me, but even farther up
the street than I had thought. I catch up to her
and say, with real (but magical!) enthusiasm, "I
can't wait to see what amazing thing happens
while we are walking on this street!" And I do
mean it. I really can't wait.
Expectantly I walk forward, and passing two
girls coming in the opposite direction, I say
heartily, "Hi! How are you all doing tonight?"
"Great," they say as they walk on by. "Nope," I
say to my sister, "I don't think those girls have
anything to do with the amazing thing that is
going to happen on this street." I can feel my
sisters eyes rolling in her head. I continue
talking to her, "There must be something
farther up ahead that really will be amazing."
So, we continue up the street, and unlike the
street parallel to the one we are walking on - the
one with all the festivity - no apparent amazing
things seem to be within sight.

But finally, we come upon a bar. I know this

bar, but I don't know it either. This space, this
place, has had so many reincarnations in the
past umpteen years I admit I don't know what
its present state of purpose or name is.
As I walk closer and closer to this "new"
unknown place, I spot two unsuspecting men which I quickly determine are gay - standing
outside the establishment, in what appears to
be deep conversation, and before they know
that a cyclone was about to befall them, I
introduced myself. "Hi," I said, "my name is L,
what are your names?" And as gentleman
would, when completely disrupted from a quiet
conversation by a force much greater than what
they might have expected on a cold, windy,
winter evening, on an "off" street in downtown
______, they introduce themselves to me.
After introductions, and, for what I think will be
just a few moments, I chat with the two men
about this and that, when finally the one
gentleman says to me, "Where are you from?"

"From here," I reply. "_______ ," I say. "You

can't be from here," says he. "Why?" I question
him. And he replies, "Because you're too
interesting!"
"Hahaha!" I laughed out loud, "That's
amazing!" I gushed to them, "My sister, hmm...
where has my sister gone?" I wondered out
loud, "Well, anyway, she told me something
amazing would happen if I walked down this
(nearly barren - my own assessment!) street
with her," and, I continued, "You have basically
told me, I am so much of an anomaly of
______'s heritage, that I appear to be someone
of great interest!"
Wow, I thought to myself, fully aware of the diss
to my hometown, but without one iota of care
about it, my sister was right; something
amazing was on this particular street. And guess
what? It was me!
:)
I share this story from last night because I

thought, later, that it is a perfect synopsis of

what is happening in my life now.
And what seems to be happening now is, I think
I am going down a "street" that has nothing
"interesting" on it, a street that won't lead me to
what I really want, a street away from the
"happening," festival street where all the
"action" is, a street where apparently nothing is
"happening!"
But just like I did last night, I have to remind
myself to stop, stop whatever it is I'm doing,
thinking, or feeling, that is being negative, that
is not "open" to whatever the "Universe" might
present me with. And, when I stop, I need to
close my eyes, take a moment, and remind
myself, with a purposeful, precise focus, that, I,
am making my life whatever it is going to be!
I control my destiny, and that destiny, that fate,
comes from whatever I determine that it
should be!
In the end, last night, what I found out is, that
most of whatever happens in life is fated on just

how you view, how you perceive (or don't!),

whatever the "world" presents you with. Look at
life one way and it is that way, look at it
another, and it is another.
So, be the determiner of whatever life it is
you want to have!