Open Mic

In my 50-some years on this lovely planet I have had the privilege of participating in a wide array of activities. I like to think that I am a fairly well rounded individual, but this weekend I did something new – I performed at an open mic.

It was a last minute kind of thing. I found out about it the day before it happened, so there wasn’t a lot of time to prepare. I was able to convince my friend Andrew to join me on keyboards, so I was all set.

We picked a couple of songs, we opted not to rehearse, and we let some friends know that we would be doing it. On Saturday night we drove down to the local Starbucks and waited to see what would happen.

I was pleased when I saw several friends arrive. I knew that I had invited them and assumed that they were there to hear Andrew and me. It was pretty gratifying. We had a lot of fun, and the crowd received us well.

The thing that really stood out to me was my one friend who arrived late. As I was sitting back down I saw him walk in with his family. I was bummed that he was too late to hear me sing, but I was thrilled that he made the effort. He had let me know that he was coming and that he was bringing his family. The tricky part was that his family is still not quite ready to accept me due to my past criminal convictions. Even my friend has only recently begun to come around to accepting me back into his life. I knew that this was a rather large step for him.

It’s normal for me to do it, but I love it when I see a friend…

–Rise Up!!