Under the Fairy Lights

I remember it so clearly; etched into my brain and happily taking up space that had previously been reserved for stress, self doubt, and the unknown. A simple act of love and kindness between two lovers, not towards me at all, but that I witnessed, that once again restored my faith in humanity and, more importantly, in love.

It was late, the darkness of night already shrouding many of the common activities that take place on a typical Wednesday night in Los Angeles (although in the midst of the pandemic...there was hardly a lot going on). I monotonously pulled up to the stop light on Santa Monica Boulevard, no music blaring as usual, and I looked around at the deadened streets with a sense of boredom. The light was particularly lingering in the red and I looked to my left at the shop on the corner. The lights were off and, in typical LA fashion, an apartment was nestled right above the historically busy West Hollywood street. Through the open window in that tiny little apartment, soft twinkling lights shone alongside a slow jazzy tune that I couldn't quite make out. It was easy and soulful. And in that same moment, enjoyed a man and woman slow dancing in a deep embrace.

So simple an action is dancing together with someone you love. So simple an action is taking a moment to breathe and experience the current moment, and yet, I hardly find myself, or anyone around me for that matter, taking such pleasures. So rare is such a human experience in day to day life that when looked upon, it seems like a unicorn...maybe I had just made it up? But as I watched them...I couldn't make up this scene, this moment, this love.

The light turned green soon after and I pulled away from the moment slowly and reluctantly, but I couldn't stop thinking about what I had seen. It felt almost intrusive to have witnessed such intimacy, such pure and unadulterated human kindness. I now shared this special moment with these two strangers that would never know how good they had made me feel. They would never know the kindness they had shared. That was the very thing that I only thought possible in a Hollywood blockbuster movie. It was what I wanted for myself. I wanted to feel the closeness of another person radiating only love and harbouring only thoughts of the here and now rather than my constant state of annoyance over my unemployment benefits, the lack of toilet paper, or the length of the grocery line.

It has been a few months since I held a piece of love in my stealing gaze and I still think about it quite often. In reality it was only a handful of seconds watching them dance together in peace, but it felt like minutes, and it lives freely in my mind always. A simple act of kindness witnessed and passed along in tongue. How lucky I count myself to have seen such humanity in a time when we lack even the basic needs of our true nature. Touch, warmth, interaction, kindness.

I now dance. Sometimes by myself in my living room, to jazz, to rock n roll. I sing along at times and whip my hair around or get on my knees dramatically and utterly in the moment. I am lucky enough to have found my person who dances with me. And occasionally, when the mood strikes just right, we slow dance only millimeters apart, bathed in the music and safe in each others arms, for this world needs a little bit more love and that, we are happy to give.