Sitting here at the airport in Istanbul, with “iffy” WiFi, I began to catch up on correspondence. All of those amazing humans in your life that have been slowly building up, waiting for your attention. You haven’t meant to ignore their kind gesture, request for a testimonial, put plans for that upcoming retreat on the back burner.... it just happens because you’re overbooked at home.

Sitting in an airport however, you have nothing else to do. So you start ticking the thank you sand the hellos and the gratitude out. It’s been too long, so while you’re still able to be connected, you type as fast as you can on the tablet. Hoping to get the new-age telegraphs out to your peeps before the two hours of free WiFi is up on your 5 hour layover.

And then a friendly person, also traveling alone, sitting at the table next to you, asks “are you a writer?” And you find yourself surprised by your immediate answer: “yes.” And you get to talking. She is from Munich and traveling back after a week in Istanbul - her second-favorite city, after Paris. She’s driven through Gary, Indiana - but not your current city, the (way) better known and desired Chicago. She asks about the difference between Chicago and Seattle - she was there 25 years ago for a visit before it got trendy.

You’ve never been to Seattle so you take the biggest generalizations you can (and you acknowledge how broad they are) - the east coast is corporate, the mid-west is family values, and the West coast is more of a hippie vibe.

...what?

It’s not too far from the perceived truth, at least.

She inquires about your writing and you find yourself surprised at having answers. This is a part of you that has been largely ignored the last few years. You used to blog, used to write plays and series-treatments, and short films and now occasionally you write music. You’ve submitted a few editorial articles to online blogs but no one bit and you didn’t work that hard on them anyways.

So you begin again. The machine has been in the back of the closet, gathering dust and you have now, based on a simply query from a stranger, pulled it out and dusted it off.

This is what it is all about - travel, adventure....meeting strangers whom you have a brief but beautiful experience with, that reminds you of who you are, in some way. We didn’t exchange names, I don’t know what she does for a living. But you know, maybe, maybe that the next time she is driving through Gary, Indiana, she’ll stop off and hear some music in Chicago.

My gratitude to you, Angel, because that is what you are. You inspired this post, you reminded me of who I am In one small, imperative way. In a way that allowed me to give myself permission to stop working and start accessing creation.

I am so excited to have you join me on this adventure.

Hugs from Istanbul,

k