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As you may know, night walks are city walks.

Tonight is not only a Friday night, it’s one of the first really nice evenings of the year and downtown was bustling with life and energy. 

I was far from the only person out walking. But I was the only person walking a dog and I was wearing quite the frumpy outfit.

It was pretty clear that I wasn’t part of any of the myriad scenes and groups who were gathering, mingling, and enjoying the city.

I noticed that I was noticing.

I had the entertaining realization that I could go home, decide which group I wanted to fit into, put on the appropriate clothes, channel the corresponding attitude, and adopt the identity markers to at least play the part for awhile.

About the time I was enjoying the thought of doing something like a month long challenge where I intentionally change identities, I met an older couple while waiting at a crosswalk. They were both dressed to the nines. A handsome couple. The woman’s eyes caught mine and there was such a lovely sparkle and a warm, friendly exchange. The man’s eyes caught the interaction and he reached for her hand and moved quickly ahead. 

Maybe that’s how it went. 

Something like that. I was prepared to meet his eyes with the same welcoming kindness and I actually caught his eyes first but he had looked away toward the crosswalk light.

Anyway, all of this is quite beside the point of what happened next. 

As I watched the couple walk ahead of me, they slowed to join a party of similarly aged and dressed folks. A group of beautiful people who, by all appearances, have plenty of whatever they want and need. The kind of look that says that you made it in life and are now going to enjoy what’s left of it. 

For whatever reason, a sad story arose into my awareness. Several years ago, I was volunteering at a memory care facility, playing music for the small group who lived there, getting to know them and their families, and experiencing a lot of healing and meaning of my own.

I met a gentleman there whose wife was one of the residents. She was quite young, as was he. One day, he explained that they had looked forward to their retirement years all of their lives. In the first year, his wife received her diagnosis and before the end of that year she needed advanced care.

They were younger than the couple I met at the crosswalk. 

As I felt the sadness of this story, all of a sudden, tonight, walking along the street, rather than seeing any of the clothes or identities that anyone was wearing, I began to see them without any of those layers, real or perceived. 

I noticed my heart soften and open.

Not only did their layers shed before me, but my own shed. 

Several people approached me, frumpy-dog-walker-look and all, just to say “Hi!” One gentleman, who was so in love with his partner that you could feel it a block away, stopped me and introduced himself, “Hi! What’s your name, sir? My name is Dan. It’s wonderful to meet you.”

What?

What had I really been wearing? What layers of “No. I’m not interested.” had I clothed myself in and closed myself off with?

Whatever they were, they weren’t there anymore. 

Shed.

Many years ago, during my business traveling era of life, I was delayed at Chicago O’Hare and decided to walk around the airport for awhile. 

I was upset. Other people were upset. 

Everyone looked angry. 

We were all just passing each other and passing along irritation and agitation.

Suddenly, something shifted. 

I had nothing to do with it.

I just noticed that I stopped seeing the face that each person was making and began to see what their face looks like when they are enraptured, blissful, joyful, shining! 

I stopped in my tracks.

And I noticed that as each person passed by me their face and countenance quite quickly transformed into what I had seen and was seeing.

It was remarkable. Astonishing. 

My own face was radiating. 

My body was glowing and pulsing and receiving and communicating so much joy and love that I wondered if I would burst.

I began walking again and one person after another began to beam. It was as if the sun had come out of the shadows and was producing a warm glow on all of us. 

Several times, after passing another glowing sun, I would turn my head back while walking and notice that they, too, had turned their head.

Just to see. Just to make sure.

Oh, the smiles. The moments. The knowing laughter.

Eventually, I returned to my gate and boarded the plane and closed my eyes and dreamed a dream where the sun shone on the world and filled us with such joy and radiance that we almost couldn’t take it anymore. 

Peace.