Stepping Into the Void

Last night I had the pleasure of singing at Il Basillico, a restaurant in Esperanza, just outside of Nosara not far from the Nosara Yoga Institute. I was invited to join an Argentinean guitarist named Juan by the restaurants owner, Chandi, a young Costa Rican man from a family of restaurant people who own Giardino Tropical and Il Basillico. They have mastered the art of wood fired pizza and turn out the most amazing food in the most unpretentious of environments like paper thin Beef Carpaccio, house–made foccacia with marinated shrimp, mussels and calamari, huge plates of spaghetti and green salads with vine-ripe tomatoes, basil and perfectly toasted hunks of fresh baked bread. I agreed to sing that night for thirty dollars, red wine and food. Apparently Juan had done a great job spreading the word about the “happening” at Il Basillico that night and had invited other musicians, Carl, massage therapist, surfer and drummer from Florida and Schlomo, owner of the local organic market, to sit in on percussion and guitar. Never having played with any of them before and never singing half of the selections that evening, it was quite a free for all, but amazingly fun with moments of surprisingly good music. The funny thing about it is I had no anxiety, no second thoughts about performing, no second guessing my decision to say, “I’ll be there!”, something that happens to me a lot at home, especially when I find myself before a performance with little preparation and rehearsal and afterwards having had little or no fun. So there I was last night in front of at least a hundred people, a lot of them familiar, playing with musicians I never played with before and hardly knew, performing songs I didn’t know much less rehearse, having a blast. This morning at Zen Café, the conversation centered on “stepping into the void”. Mike, the husband of one of the yogis in training, (they graduated tonight!), told me that they were pretty sure they were going to relocate from Atlanta to Nosara. We talked about that feeling of “not knowing” regarding the future for his young family and the amount of faith it takes to make a move like that especially with young children and for me the mystery of my day to day life here with all this "space" and how difficult it is to take that first step. Later when I returned to my new nest, I received a message from Shelly, an old friend from high school who was keeping up with my posts. She herself was contemplating this very thing “embracing the unknown with strength and determination”- especially at a cross roads. She wisely stated “It can’t just happen wishing and praying if you don’t take the steps”. Taking the steps, even baby steps will get you where you want to go and if your not sure exactly where that is, step anyway. I spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the rain while I practiced the guitar and sang new songs.