Hammy's Corner

Hammy's Corner
This is my official first entry onto my blog site. I will use this place as a diary to document what I have been doing and how I feel about all of it. I may at times go off on a rant or two, actually I know I will. Read it at your leisure and comment and write what you want as you wish. Enjoy!

I sit in an apartment in Montreal listening to Jack Johnson sing about life and I begin to reflect on my own life and how I have been living these past few days out in particular.

I was walking along a street downtown Montreal yesterday afternoon and as I was looking at the people passing on by, I observed something. These people had something in their stride, something that I felt I didn't have this day and that thing is direction and certainty. I don't know that I feel as though I lacked direction or certainty, its just that I didn't neccessarily have it. I wandered about, without a timeline or schedule to keep. As I walked by buildings along my path I thought, "I wonder what's in there?" The neat thing about this day is that I could and did go and look at what was in this building or that shop.

Freedom! Freedom from the clock and from the restraints of time. It's difficult to adjust to. I keep looking at the time and thinking to myself that I should be doing something other than what it is I am already doing. Then the counteracting thought enters and says, "But why? What else should you be doing? Why shouldn't you explore the nooks and crannies of this fair city?" And so I did.

As I was walking along I came toward a guy, about my age, and we came to pass eachother while making eye contact. As we were about to pass, I smiled and he nodded, locking eyes the whole time. In all the hustle of everyone walking by, he caught my eye, perhaps because for whatever reason, I caught his. I spent the afternoon watching people and he was the someone, even if it was only for a moment, that I felt connected to. I know this sounds crazy, and I don't even really know why I am exploring this idea... but it was a feeling in which I'd like to tune into more often.

Connecting with strangers, without saying a single word. It was a quick and peaceful interaction. It was a noticing of eachother that doesn't happen all that often in the midst a large crowd of strangers. It was recognition, a person to person, human to human moment. Anyways, I think this may be coming out in a way that doesn't really convey my thoughts properly, it's a difficult thing to describe. Next time you're walking among strangers, look into as many eyes as you can and see if you can figure out what I'm talking about. It is a neat thing, it gives personality to these random bodies that are in your presence.