This Friday, I have the singular experience of DJing the music for the Maine Yoga Fest’s kickoff event.
“Electric Flow: An Uprising” will be led by one of my oldest and dearest friends on this Earth, Caitlin Marcoux. To say I’m honored to accompany her as her DJ is a gross understatement.
My friendship with Caitlin stretches back nearly 3 decades now, when we would race each other from the bus stop that we both shared in our hometown of Nantucket Island. As we grew in to middle school and high school, I admired her talent in everything she applied herself to. A fantastic dancer, vocalist, and pianist, Caitlin has always been a shining star and beacon for her friends and peers.
She probably doesn’t realize it, and might not ever cop to it, but Caitlin has influenced my musical tastes in major ways. Not only did she turn me on to some fantastic music (Seal’s first album is still one of my all-time favorites, and that’s just one) but conceptually helped me realize the art and the cool in pop music.
As we drifted in to our adult years, we lost touch for a spell, but were easily reconnected thanks to the gravity that Nantucket fosters in its own. I learned that Caitlin had, already in her young adult life, experienced the kind of loss and grief that most can’t comprehend. Through her struggles, she forged a new path for herself in healing and therapeutic arts, eventually landing in this fantastic career as a yoga instructor.
There’s no great way to receive the news that someone so dear to you has cancer. Since her diagnosis, though, I have seen something truly remarkable in this amazing woman. She has re-phrased the words of a diagnosis, and turned it in to a prescription for action and living, not only for herself, but scores of others who she has influenced and mentored in her classes and practice. It’s catching. People are taking notice of Caitlin, her work, and her advocacy for others. This might be the functioning definition of healing. She’s hardly a survivor. This one is a thriver.
On Friday, I’ll see Caitlin for the first time in quite a while. We’ll be celebrating life in all of its gloriousness. We’ll be finding the Electric Flow that binds us in moments together. And, we’ll see how much of it we can amass together, so there will be ample amounts for everyone to take a bit home. There’s much to celebrate. Let’s do that.
Get tix here: http://sched.co/2Owh