Stop — Listen — Heal

SERENDIPITOUS STREET MUSIC CAN CHANGE YOUR DAY

I don’t know his name. I’m not even sure of his instrument —  although I think it’s a shakuhachi.

What I do know is when I’m walking through Peace Plaza in San Francisco’s Japantown, the notes float wistfully above street noises and conversations of passersby. Bringing peace indeed.

In those melodies is a cure for all weariness, anxiety or woe.

Sometimes instead of the flautist there is, across the street, an instrumentalist. He’s tried to tell me the name of his instrument. It’s not quite as peaceful as the flute, but close.

It’s easy to pass them by, these gentle buskers whose music is a universal language. Most people do.

But I keep a supply of dollar bills in my pocket for whenever one is there. Because if you stop, and listen for the sweetness? 

Priceless.