By Ashley Dowling

Sometimes life can feel like the movies if you let it. The movies are scripted and rehearsed for that picture perfect moment. But when that moment happens without someone pulling your strings, it feels like magic.

A few years ago I sat on the beach with my parents, Elliot, and a Ukulele in hand. We listened to the sigh of ocean waves while I played a few melodies beneath the stars. Eventually we got up off the sand, I strapped my Ukulele to my back, and Elliot I leisurely walked the boulevard, my parents trailing far behind.

Through the crowd my eyes locked onto the eyes of a passerby and his on mine. Then unexpectedly the man reached behind his back, swung his Ukulele in playing position, and instantly began serenading me right then and there with song.

We both kept walking our own separate directions, though our eyes never left one another. He belted tunes and I sang along as we now walked backwards through the crowd away from each other. Eventually he faded away into the throng of moving bodies, but the song stayed and so did that moment’s magic.

Life can come at you in unannounced moments in those tiny intervals of your expectations. Our lives are often scripted by the dialog in our minds. Todays to dos, tomorrow’s woes, and yesterday’s frustrations don’t easily leave us. Sometimes you need to stop and let life come in. Then maybe you’ll experience the magic, too.

When’s the last time you stopped, even to just look around?

About the Author

Ashley Dowling is a Product Manager on a mission to make the usability of software as easy as eating cake. When not immersed in the digital realm – you might find her with a ukulele in hand or a book in lap with her snoozing side-kick Elliot, a Dalmatian/Lab!