Life on tour is a succession of “you had to be there” moments. Nobody but a few can understand the jokes because it’s almost never funny when retold. You just had to be there.

Reading a concert’s critic will never give you goosebumps. But being in Brussels in a full room, watching people clapping and getting up spontaneously after the last notes of Mahler’s fifth symphony have been played, is definitely an experience that I will cherish.

I have always loved going to events. Savoring the moment, knowing that I share it with total strangers who won’t even have the same experience as me.

It’s weird when you think about it. Two people can be present at the same event and have a very different experience. And sometimes, a hundred people can be moved by a few notes. The same can be said about jokes. Sometimes it sparks between two person over something banal and it stays there, a reminder of a moment. And other times, the joke grows, is spread amongst the crowd and a hundred people share a “you had to be there” moment.

What I enjoy most about those moments is not the feeling of exclusivity (it’s so easy to fall into the fear of missing out, aka FOMO, trap) but a conscience of fully being in the present. We often live in the expectancy of something. We prepare, we plan, we hope and then when the moment arrives we miss it. We don’t listen to the joke or savor the melody. We skip the experience in order to plan for the next thing.

I am not above doing that. In the past two years I realized that I’ve skipped a lot of present moments in pursuit of future ones that looked better. But in doing so, I realized that I was missing the juiciness of life. Being on tour reminded me of that.

Life happens in the present. Life happens on a bus between Budapest and Vienna when the wifi doesn’t work and you feel frustrated. Life also happens in Brussels sharing a good meal with colleagues, laughters and bad puns. Life happens back in Montreal when you finally get home after and exhausting day of traveling to find your daughter, almost ten years old, running towards you and wanting to be held like she is five.

So, do you enjoy the present? Do you hear the jokes around you? The melody of life? Do you embody the frustration and the delights?

Are you there?

‍

< Retour

‍