Look for the Light

NOTE: This is part posting for a killer TED Talk I watched and another part story/writing from me on a recent experience. That's all.

After an incredible nonverbal interaction between myself and a female stranger yesterday evening, a friend posted this TED Talk link on my update as a comment. I had to share, but before I do, I wanted to more elaborately document the experience that resulted in my posting and in turn this video. Read on if you'd like, or jump to the video.

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I couldn't help but but feel overwhelmed with a sudden flash of clarity and warmth. As I walked through the Mission district, caught up with my surroundings, the overwhelming stimulus in my eyes. I was distracted in the web between my ears, distorted, frustrated, happy, in a jumble of thoughts and emotions running in all directions like a school playground during recess. And then there was her... she amongst the others simply glided as she guided her bike along the sidewalk. It was dusk, the sun setting with a bright and comforting burnt glow. From a distance she glanced, making eye contact, then smiling, and I caught it, right into me. But it wasn't anything.. strangers smile all the time. At least that's what I thought at first. I looked away, breaking the connection, feeling vulnerable, as if she just peered into my very being. She insisted and initiated the contact again, this time with much more pleasant intensity. It was as if she wasn't done before, like I'd interrupted her sentence and she'd yet to make her point. So she hooked my attention again and I realized she was conversing with me. Her smile again struck me, this time holding me. The glare of the sun beamed off her eyes. It sparkled. It was but only mere seconds yet felt as if we'd been talking for days without sleeping. As if she'd known the secrets I kept in a chest to which no one had the keys, are you kidding. She already knew what excuses I would serve up to avoid vulnerability and really, she didn't want to say a single word to me aloud. It was this simple action that immediately cleared the self conjured clouds in my head in seconds. It was a connection unlike any other, something deeper. She spoke to me with her light, telling me, "i love you and relax, because you're exactly where you should be." I knew what she meant. And she'll never know what she did for me, how much I craved that confirmation, and how it continues to resonate inside me... or does she?
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// credit: TED