I have often found myself having profound discussions with perfect strangers–on an airplane, on a ferry, at a bus stop in North Africa and New York. Crossroads, the ancient Greeks believed, were a point where time and space collided, where the spirit world crossed into the corporeal one, and where the Goddess Hecate ruled.
I’ve always felt that people were harbingers of messages for us from the Universe. But we have to be receptive in order to truly listen to that message. I suppose when we travel to an unfamiliar place, our senses are heightened as we take in different sights and sounds. No longer are we on automatic pilot, walking through the same path we take every day, oblivious to the beauty right around us.
That is why a certain chance encounter with a person from another culture can be so meaningful. But you don’t really have to go anywhere to achieve that sublime feeling. It is always there if you open up to your familiar surroundings. Ironically, it took a meeting with Frederik Molenschot, the wonderful lighting designer with whom I was working with, to realize this.
Perhaps it was the jet lag (he had just flown in from Amsterdam) or perhaps as a artist, he recognized another creative mind in action. But somehow, he confronted me with a question: What did I really want from life--from my life? Could I fashion a life as rich and as creative as my soul craved? I found myself at a crossroads, feeling like anything I chose was possible. And all that I had experienced thus far– my failures and heartbreaks intertwined with my successes and joys--had led me to this exact point.
As we discussed the sinuous lines of his illuminated sculpture, how its reflectivity and sheer volume would be filling the lofty dining room of a Tony townhouse on the Upper East Side, I couldn’t help but feel like my path was intersecting this moment and spanning out to somewhere unknown. My senses were heightened and I had that same feeling when I am somewhere new and unfamiliar. As I cradled the bronze chalice (that was a part of Frederik’s chandelier) in my hand, I gazed at the gilding inside reflecting back to me, and became electrified by my own possibilities.
