Fourth Form of Madness

I worked late this week and decided to treat myself to a taxi instead of the bus on the last 15 mins of the journey. I love taxi rides. When I was working in the stockbroking industry I got to take a lot of them and got to meet some really cool people with wonderful life stories to tell. I can honestly say some of the best advice I have received has been from taxi drivers. I have been told “to hold my truth in life even when it is no-one else’s” by one powerful yet gentle woman driver and that the one thing you can guarantee in life “is the vast space” from one very mystic driver that seemed to know a good deal about yoga and could stop your heart with his intense stare not to mention his laugh.

However, my personal favourite will always be a very well dressed Indian mini cab driver who literally appeared out of no-where when I was 21 and down and out in London. There I was lamenting in my head about all the woes in my life in the back seat of a brand new Mercedes (yes I know I had never been in a mini cab that was so plush, usually they were all ready for the pits). He proceeded to chat about the beauty of life and his many daughters and in between all this told me “to know your own power that is all that is asked of any of us”. Somewhere in the rapture of his words, I remembered I needed to go to the cash teller (this was the days before Visa and eftpos in taxis). Upon hearing I didn’t have enough money to get me to my house he answered “Don’t worry, I will always get you home when you come with me, you don’t need money”. His words seemed to hang in the air and have always stayed with me. When he dropped me at my flat I remember standing in the middle of the road for about 5 minutes just watching the taxi drive out of view and feeling like something really important had just happened although I wasn’t really sure what it was.

So here I was 2 days ago flopping into a taxi after a long day at work. A storm was brewing and there was that amazing energy you feel in the air before the lightening starts cracking. I turn to my taxi driver and am struck with what a kind and joyous face he has, clearly this man loves life. Then he starts talking in his eastern european accent and randomly smiling at me from the corner of his mouth, I am already in love with his spirit. Life has been tough for him over the last few years as he struggled to keep his taxi business afloat. The only reason he has done it is to ensure that his son would have a job but now all the taxi driver’s money was gone and he couldn’t keep going this way. This man I guessed was about 60, as I listened I felt my stomach register fear, fear for him and fear of that situation. I needed hadn’t bothered. In the next breath he is talking me through how one day he thought “I can’t continue this path for much longer, I need to create an alternative for myself”. So he did, he had for the last few years being studying various safety courses. He walked me through his 5 year plan and how he anticipated, that after getting a job in the safety industry, would study part time at uni to get a degree qualification. I didn’t doubt a word of it. I couldn’t help admiring how throughout his whole story this man was smiling and joyous and excited about life. I just beamed at him with awe and sent a silent thank you out to the universe that I should be so lucky to spent some time with such a beautiful and powerful being. And he was powerful, as I listened I heard a person that did not rely on the outside to tell him what he could and couldn’t do but trusted his own self and instinct to create his life and his experience of it. Talk about knowing your power, this gentle man reminded me how powerful creativity is and how it opens up a person and their life. I can’t wait until my next taxi journey!