My best friend and I finally got to take our trip to Nashville. We had been planning the trip for a few years, but it kept getting postponed. We were so excited to get the chance to visit Music City, finally. However, the pandemic was still alive and well, and traveling was a little scary for us. 

Tina flew south from Virginia, and I flew East from California. We set it up to arrive at the airport about the same time. Our similar arrival times made it super convenient to share a ride to our hotel located smack in the center of downtown.

I will admit Nashville wasn’t quite what I expected. When I thought of Nashville, I thought it would be all cowboy boots and country music. It wasn’t like that at all. Yes, there were a ton of bars, all had music, but not much of it was country music. It was all over the board and a little overwhelming—so many people. And loud…oh my gosh, it was so loud, each sound system trying to overpower the next.

Little did we know that Nashville currently was rated one of the top five bachelorette destinations. We might have stayed downtown for only a night or two had we known. The city was like a huge party, kind of a crazy place. I fondly named downtown “Whoo-town” because that was what we heard all night. It was coming from the rolling parties throughout the city. The chaos started about 1:00 pm and went to about 3:00 am. Call me a party pooper, but a little bit of that went a long way.

One evening we walked up to John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge that looks over the city. Our thought was to get away from the noise and shoot some cool pictures. What I remember most about the bridge was the city’s roar below us. It had all the typical sounds you would expect, sirens, motorcycles, car horns, and crowd voices, but added to all that was a bombardment of music filling the air—everything you can imagine. I’d never experienced anything like it.  

One of the days we rented a car so we could get out of the city and see some of the countryside. We went to downtown Franklin, which was a beautiful little town. We wandered around the shops and stopped at Puckett’s for some of their famous homemade southern country fried chicken. We had a great day. I suggested we drive over to the Grand Ole Opry and check it out on the way home. We had just enough time to see the place and take some pictures before we needed to get our rental car back. Wouldn’t you know, we ended up getting there just as they were selling tickets for the last show of the evening. We worried about that rental car for about one minute. 

We bought our tickets, grabbed a couple of hot dogs, and found our seats. It was a great show. I really wanted to do this, and it was great to get it checked off my to-do list. We only thought about the car again as we walked to the parking lot. We hoped the rental agency didn’t have a tracker on the vehicle and had it towed when we were in the show. But the car was there, and we stayed out of trouble. (With my luck, it could have gone either way.)

One evening, near the end of our trip, we had gone downstairs for dinner and stayed a while to listen to the music. It was late, but not super late. We were sitting in our room chatting when a couple of lights from the hotel across the street caught our attention. It looked like the lights of two cell phones in a hotel room window directly across the street from us.

We watched for a few minutes. We weren’t sure what to think at first; perhaps these people were signaling for help? And why was the room behind them dark? We quickly realized they weren’t in trouble at all. They were simply saying hello to the “windows” on the other side of the street. Their curtains were open, but there was absolutely no other light in their room. 

It was kind of fascinating as the lights danced across the window. We assumed someone on our side was doing the same back to them. After a few minutes, Tina said, “Let’s get our cell phones, turn off our light, and signal back to them.” 

Usually, I’m the one that comes up with unusual ideas, so I’m not sure why I hesitated. At first, I felt like I was crashing someone’s party. But it didn’t take much convincing on Tina’s part to get me to participate.

So here, Tina and I stood at the window of our dark hotel room with our cell phone lights on. At first, we meekly waved them back and forth, slowly to the left and slowly back to the right. At some point, we realized the lights across the street were mirroring what we were doing. I think that was the point when my awkward self-consciousness faded away. I remember saying to Tina, “Are they coping us?” They were. They had seen us and were engaging with us. Left to right, right to left, up, down, circles, and patterns. It was creativity with lights. We would lead, and they would follow. Then they would lead, and we would follow. It was mesmerizing.

The longer we stood there, the more creative both sides of the street became. This went on for quite a while until Tina and I were eventually ready to pull the curtains and get some sleep.

Later I realized I still felt this odd connection to whoever might be behind those lights. We had no idea who they were, what they looked like, what country they were from, or if we spoke the same language. They could have been sitting next to us at dinner or whoo-hooing on one of the party buses all day. We would never know.

But the connection was genuine. We shared a moment. It was a perfect display of silent equality and creativity.

Here we were, in the crazy world of downtown Nashville with all its noise, lights, and over-the-top stimulation. Who could have ever guessed one of my favorite moments of the trip would be the anonymous lights across the street?  

Wishing you joy and peace,

Lorrie

The peace of God is much greater than the human mind can understand. This peace will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7