Alex Grant: A Free-Range Life

Talking to Strangers (About Music)

Trying to title this podcast, I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. It's hard to put Alex in a box. He said he would go into one, but only if he knew who he was in there with...Ha. This is why Alex and I have become great friends and confidants over the last five years, ever since we met on the lunchroom balcony of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY a place seekers like us go to...well, find. In addition to whatever we learned in our workshops, Alex and I found each other. He smiled at me his big smile and gave me such an enthusiastic hello that I felt like we'd been friends forever. Maybe that's what we were there for, to meet each other, who knows. The lady at check-in when I first went, for my 40th birthday, said gravely, "People tend to find what they're looking for here." I'd told her I'd wanted to get lost in the woods somewhere, but was wimping out and getting a "tent cabin" just slightly off the well-lit pathways of the retreat center's main campus. The next morning, I set out on a hike, unprepared and not paying attention as usual, no water or phone, and got completely lost. The words from the intro session about the size of the land and reminders to stay on the paths rang in my ears along with gunshots as the white-tailed bucks bounced by. They seemed to know where they were going, unlike me, who'd gone skipping into the woods never noting a trail marker. And I laughed when finally I found the path: I'd found what I'd come for, to get lost and then trust myself to find my way. I digress, but not really because this podcast is about meeting strangers, this particular episode about meeting Alex Grant and becoming friends. And what he and I do during many video chats weekly from separate sides of the world is to meander over and around our different paths, and we ponder aloud. Which is a good thing. We talk about our connections, what we're looking for, what we find, and what to do about it. Alex is an acupuncturist and a chef and a yogi. He puts together websites and events (like the Hamptons Yogafest I helped out with, and the Yoga of Business workshop he led in my apartment), and is a regular attendee of some fascinating workshops on sex and love and connection that I love to hear about and benefit from sidelong. He is many things, my friend Alex. He is anything he wants to be, which is a good reminder to all of us. The door to that box should stay open maybe, and offer us such a free-range life as this man's. Listen in. And remember: talking to strangers brings great possibilities.