A moment of Inspiration in Panama

In the middle of the night, my eyes pry open from the sound of hard rain hitting the tin rooftops of Chitre. As loud as can be, my aunt sleeps soundly unable to hear the rain against the jittery metal. My nights in Panama are magical, every other night the rain falls like the sea being poured out of a bucket.

With my music,  I step out onto the soaked-marble balcony and  hover over the street, watching cats and dogs run for their safety. I look outward at the beauty of the city, the bare ridden roads completely vacant, and the neon lights illuminating the buildings beside it. I sit on the railing as Bob Dylan springs into my ear.

“Oh the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking.
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking.”

Right then as I let the verse resonate, I think to myself what  I’ll do in my life, my dreams, my wishes, my opportunities, what I have and what I don’t. From earlier in the day at San Juan Baptista, the friends I’ve met and people I  know, the experiences I’ve felt, and the things I’ve seen. Will it’ll be washed up like a foot print on the beach? Or will I be remembered by the things I do, the things I create, the things I believe in and even the things I say?

“And they’ll raise their hands,
Sayin’ we’ll meet all your demands,
But we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered.
And like Pharaoh’s tribe,
They’ll be drownded in the tide,
And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered.”

Motivated by the last verse of the song, I climb over the walls of the balcony and onto its neighboring building. The rain still pouring and making beautiful music, hitting the rooftops as intense as an orchestra in its climax. I walk to the very center and spread my arms out, calling into the sky.  And right then on the top of Panama, everything made sense and for that brief moment I thought to myself This is what inspiration is…