"Christina "
Have you ever met someone who seems to live in their own little world? I'm sure you have. We all have. These people seem to move through life with theme music, either oblivious to conventional wisdom or blatantly thumbing their nose at conformity. Fundamentally, however, these people are not so different from the rest of us. After all, we all inhabit the same planet. But the way we define ourselves and our environment is based on a view of the world seen through a lens of experience, values, emotions and attitudes. I am convinced these unique individuals who dance when the rest walk do not live in a different world, but merely see it in a dramatically different way.
I have recently met a individual like this.
Christina is a young and beautiful 23 year old woman of Armenian descent iving in the painted and shiny landscape of Southern California. I met her, as I have met all of the most fascinating people I know, through some random twist of fate resulting in the intersection of our paths. She is psychology graduate of the University of California, Irvine. She has a passion for the outrageous -- especially in fashion. When the world is seen in black and white, she will be found in living Technicolor. Through thrift shops and Melrose, the proper and conservative wardrobe has escaped her closet.
She has spent four months at sea. She loves to dance, and glows when she speaks of her family and beloved cockatiel, Dewy. She has recently abandoned her position in counseling to move to Los Angeles in pursuit of a career in modeling and fashion. Print work she calls it. Sounds less pretentious (people can get sort of edgy around models). She is, needless to say, a lovely woman, with a natural beauty and photgenicity (I wonder if that is a word). She is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful women I know, with resplendent dark eyes, exquisite skin and a mane of thick and often tousled hair. I can see the color in her cheeks if she were to read this, and it only adds to her appeal. All but the strongest of men are helplessly drawn to her.
This does, of course, include me.
Well beyond this visage, she is a fascinating individual, and I choose that word carefully. Individual. Ultimately and divinely unique in an environment that loves and breeds conformity. Christina is a woman who views her surroundings in ways uncommon among all people I see or know.
I remember an afternoon in a Newport Beach Post Office, watching her running simple errands. Yet throughout this daily drudgery she exhibited a sprightly vibrancy, a bounce missing from the steps and movements of the other patrons in the building. Her steps, airy and graceful, navigate her way through obstacles and pessimism without hesitation or doubt. At least, none that is apparent to this rather fascinated admirer.
Christina is a beautiful and dazzling creature. A smile is a natural and common occurrence on her face. This smile captivates. The camera loves her; I am certain not merely for her natural and elegant beauty, but for the spirit she effortlessly keeps and presents. The casual passerby may, in his toil and turmoil, miss this vitality, but it cannot escape the observant or inquisitive mind. To these lucky individuals, as to the camera, she shines.
Actually, I am unsure if "shine" is an appropriate choice of words. Let me explain. As I watched Christina gliding through her day, the space around her was transformed with a vivid display of color and light. I am convinced it is through this lens of color that she sees her world.
A world of color and art. A world of opportunity and chance. A world of passion and laughter. A world of dance and joy. A world of grace bestowed from beyond.
Psychedelic flashes of electricity and energy erupt around her. Splashes or color paint her surroundings, occasionally spattering onto men and women lucky enough to cross her path, leaving indelible, though sometimes unnoticed marks on their personality. She intrigues people with her quirky sense of fashion and spirited gait. She generates a sense of trust with her honest smile, her openness and her curiosity. This charm is inevitably reciprocated, and her audience walks away intrigued, beguiled, and smiling.
As I have.
Curious, I think about Christina and her lens. I consider her world of art and style, of music and God. And I think that the paths we choose and forces of fate that assault us are not so important to true happiness and success. Rather, more significant is this lens with which we see our path and face that gale. I have seen her world but have not and cannot experience it. This is truly and individual event. But I have tried.
One evening, after returning from a evening with her, I looked out my windshield at the rows of houses and random traffic before me. I peeled away my tarnished lens and looked for beauty. And, mysteriously, I found it. Found it in the moonlight on the harbor and in the almost imperceptibly shifting hues of color in the winter sky
I looked for art, and suddenly, it was there. It was there in an antique street lamp shining in Newport Beach. It was there in the Christmas star still perched atop a marina's crane piercing the sky above the harbor.
I looked for humanity and discovered it in the faces of the thousands of people that live around me, each with a story and the capacity to laugh, to learn and to love.
I looked for serenity. I found peace in the trees and grass and shrubs and weeds that refuse to play by our silly urban rules; the natural world we so often try to pave over and shut out. A world that was here long before us, and will remain long after.
I looked for God and found him. Found him in the smile of child as she looks up at her mother. Found him in the simple acts of kindness that we all so often overlook. Found him in the beauty, art, humanity, and serenity I had forgotten to notice before.
And suddenly I saw color, hiding in the darkness.
And suddenly I saw hope, present even in the night.
I'm thankful for her influence. I hope she continues to paint her life's canvas with bold and dramatic strokes, and I pray she forever finds life fascinating and wonderful. I see her life as an adventure, less about what see is doing and more about who she is. In the short time I have known her, I have laughed with her, learned from her, and have been inspired by her. And I have been fortunate to taste her lips in the moonlight.
I honor of her spirit, radiance and light,
I'll end her essay with a rhyme, and remember her kiss...
...goodnight.
Thank you Christina.
