Magic at The Dancing Goat
Old friends, a student of the Dalai Lama, and a magical morning.
The magic began while I was listening to an audiobook by Tim Ferris; Tribe of Mentors.
The gist of the quote (I don’t know who or where in the book it was) was to be fully present in every moment, to experience other people fully by giving them your full energy, and to expect magic to happen in every moment and interaction.
I decided that I wanted to give this a try.
While I do fully believe that everything happens for a reason, sometimes it is way after the fact that I realize how important something was, as opposed to while it was happening.
So this morning, I gave fully into it.
I said to myself, “I am not sure what it will be (as it should be, it is magic after all), but I expect magic to happen this morning!”
I conjured up the internal feeling of magic by imagining the feeling of recognizing a serendipitous moment and allowed myself to be overtaken by it as I walked to a coffee shop.
I followed a tactic I learned that usually leads to an interesting side quest and I put my phone away, allowing some unknown force to guide me. I was in a large city, I had no doubt I would find a coffee shop eventually.
After a few turns, I stumbled across the Dancing Goat, a little shop on the corner full of windows across from a park. I ordered a cup of coffee, chose a random seat by the window, and sat down to get to work.
A few ladies seemed to debate on seating arrangements and soon got up from their table and settled on the seats outside, directly in front of my window.
They seemed like nice ladies, one seemed to remind me of an old friend, which makes no sense; I had never met her.
I kept working and something caught my eye.
One of the ladies pulled out two copies of the same book and handed one to the other woman. The title caught my eye: Unn… Compassion and something about a Tibetan doctor.
I was instantly curious, but it wasn’t until one of them came back inside to get a refill that I acted.
And I acted without any prior thought or contemplation, simply because I felt like I should.
I had no clue what to say, so I just let myself talk, “I don’t mean to bother you, but I’m sitting inside at the window by you and the cover caught my eye. What is that book about?”
She briefly explained how it was about a friend of theirs who (many years ago) trained under the Dalai Lama in Tibetan medicine becoming the first woman in America to practice it and how they helped write the book.
I was intrigued, to say the least.
The barista brought her drinks and we parted ways, but soon after, she arrived back inside and offered me a copy of the book.
I promptly packed my bag and followed her outside.
“Can I sit down and talk with you guys for a bit?”
“We had a feeling you would.”
