Larkin Poe @ Haight and Strader sang for their Lyft today

I have had some amazing moments of being a Lyft Driver over the last 5 months - that I keep promising to write about...today is that quantum leap that has inspired me to keep my promise - if only to myself.

It started, this morning, with a bit of self-care hooky:  "O.K. God, if you want me to play more, give me a sweet parking place near Sharon Meadow so I can go to Alice's Now and Zen concert."  said I, thinking that I should start Lyfting pretty soon now - I gotta pay that chaplaincy tuition.

Bingo - ignition lights up ahead! 

The most surprising band was Larkin Poe, because I hadn't heard of them (I know, I know they just played at the Greek Theatre last night...) a couple of kick ass country rock sisters from 'lanta - both drop dead beautiful, harmonizing, mandolin/guitar playing musicians - a striking pair in a brunette and a platinum.  OMG their music was fun.

After Walk Off the Earth, Plain White T’s the ground was getting pretty hard and I walked out to the hordes waiting to get in.  They were past capacity.  "One Solo going out."  And I am sure another  grateful solo going in to hear One Republic. 

I got into my car, pulled out the pink Mustaches and my signature pink feather boa in the front window and started my app.  I passed - a striking pair of women - one a brunette and another a platinum playing on the corner.  I checked myself, stopped, parked and walked back to hear.  There was Rebecca with her mandolin and Megan harmonizing beside her.  "Hey, its great to see you?" They had met some old friends... apparently and created a San Francisco moment right there while they waited at Haight and Strader.  "We were just waiting for a Lyft but can't get a signal."

I said, "Well, hey, I am a Lyft Driver, I will be right back with my car." I am not sure who was more thrilled - me or them by this synchronicity.  This is my life - one upLYFTing moment after another.  You can't make this stuff up.

So I took the opening act of Now and Zen 2013 home today. They all piled into my Jetta, gear in the trunk, and were completely delightful:  Southern charm and real grace.  I won't tell you where - its part of the fist bump oath of 5-star conduct - a hyper mix of HIPPA and Hippocratic. 

I am sworn to secrecy.

Self Care and the Technology Refugee.

I am a technology refugee.

It is embarrassing. I wanted to be more together than this, at this point in my life. And I am equally happy to let those comparisons get lost.  They get in my way.   I am beginning to live a life for which I was made. 

I am starting over, again. After five businesses - two as a Landscape Architect, and 3 as a Techie CEO - my knack for the bootstrapping creative digital cartographic concerns was skilled (but not, alas, for convincing money to invest.)   I was, until recently, a business owner, a bootstrapped CEO and a 'day late and a dollar short' entrepreneur.   I have tried very hard to live another person's life.  It was a struggle even for my work-a-holic self.

It was a life that my Diva-CPA mother wanted.  "Have your own business. Its something you can count on."  As a 50's woman she was ahead of her time and got a bum deal.  But she was right, of course.  She was just not right - about ME.  My grieving of her passing has allowed me to parse a lifelong identity crisis and resurrect a more authentic self - one who I came here to be

It isn't as if I didn't always know I was an artist.  I just didn't believe it was enough.

My horoscope chart apparently confirms it in a significant way:  I am an artist, a writer and a minister and I have some catching up to do.  I am a chaplaincy student who supports herself now by driving people around under the unilateral authority of the furry pink mustache.

And there is no where I would rather be than Lyfting in San Francisco. Seriously, everyone I have picked up in the last 4 months has been creative, thoughtful, talented and sharing a belief in possibilities.  They are not angry - the angry people and the grumpy people take cabs.

I actually feel sorry for the cabbies.  They have a hard job.  I am not a cab.  I am part of a connected community - a sharing community.  Most of my riders sit in the front seat and after our fist-bumping meet and greet, they tell me their  story.

I read the day - each time I drive by reading them.  Is San Francisco having a good day?  I will know after a few rides.  Whether you take Lyft, or a competing ride-sharing service or a cab, if you live in the City you are part of a collective, ethereal fabric happening this moment.

I have a story to tell about that moment - the one that just passed by.  My story is also about reaching for a dream - maybe it is yours and maybe it is not  (sometimes it is hard to tell.)  My story is also about the self-care needed to sustain your dream until it can grow up (or you can.)  It is also about driving for Lyft in the most beautiful City in America: San Francisco.

Everybody has a story.