There’s just one other person in my dorm tonight, a friendly vegan guy from Brazil. He’s just told me about a wild unexpected adventure he had today. 
This morning, he went to a random temple and chatted with a Buddhist monk. At the end of the conversation, he told the monk it was his 33rd birthday and asked if there was some sort of blessing he might give him. The monk said no, that that’s not his thing, but he knows a monk who can give him a blessing and he’s an hour outside the city. He accepts and heads out to see this monk! 
He pays a taxi driver about $18 for the whole day to drive him an hour away to a temple to see this monk and to act as his interpreter. The monk tells him that his blessing is a tattoo, and that if he agrees to the blessing, he has no say in where the tattoo goes or what it looks like. And he agrees! 
So for the next hour the monk taps this beautiful tattoo on the upper center of his back, and chanting the whole while! It represents metta–unconditional love–and other positivities. 
And while he’s telling me the story, he’s just glowing joy! He’s smiles and gushing happiness. The tattoo is stunning. It was free. He had no plans for any of this today. 
And while he’s telling me the story, I’m thinking, “Holy hell, how many times would I have stopped this journey from happening? How many no’s do I have stored in me, always ready to slam down the unexpected?”
I probably wouldn’t have spoken to the monk. 
I probably wouldn’t have mentioned my birthday. 
I probably wouldn’t have asked for a blessing. 
I certainly wouldn’t have hopped in a taxi for an hour drive!
I probably wouldn’t have agreed to a tattoo I couldn’t see beforehand!
And of course, this is this guy’s journey. And mine is mine. And what is is what is. 
Yet, let go. Yet, say yes. Yet, bend. 
This Brazilian is my teacher.