The Art of Dancing in the Rain

I’d like to share a quick story about climbing fish and transformation. Not too long ago, my good friend Phil tried something in New York that no one has done before. He created a website that would connect people based on the books that have inspired them with the only requirement to meet for a conversation. The idea came out of Einstein’s quote: “If you ask a fish to climb a tree, he’ll spend his whole life believing that he’s an idiot.” I took part in the experiment and every week, I rode the train into New York City to enjoy a cup of coffee with a wide-range of people: some straight out of college, some homeless, some millionaires, and many in their 30s who took a chance on a major career shift. They shared their stories of transformation and their dreams for the future. One went from English teacher to Broadway producer, another from T-Shirt Designer to a world-traveling photographer, and then there was a photographer who hung up the camera to start a magazine company. The only constant was change. These conversations were inspirational, of course, and here’s the lesson I learned through that experience. We will transform over and over and over again. This is the definition of living. Things will happen in life that will challenge our beliefs: we will cry, we will fall, but then we will learn to dance again. These events while on one hand traumatic can equally be viewed as an opportunity to open a new door. In this dance, we transform. Don’t resist the transformation. Later on today or tomorrow, try this. Find an old photo of yourself from when you were a little child and look into your eyes. Try to remember who you were back then and then think of how much you’ve changed. This type of change will happen over and over and over again as we grow throughout life. Life is a dance and to touch the future, you must become the future.