Born Whole

Celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary last week, my husband and I enjoyed a rare night out in London.

The evening began with a scrumptious dinner at the same tapas restaurant where we first fell in love, more than ten years ago, and ended with an impromptu visit to a jazz club in Camden.

It was by chance that we happened to pass by the Jazz Café as we left the restaurant and intrigued by the crowd outside we went closer to have a look.

“Who’s playing?” we asked the stony-faced bouncer guarding the entrance.

“Avery Sunshine.”

Neither of us had heard the name before and as we deliberated whether or not to pay the hefty entrance fee, a man who’d come outside to smoke a cigarette interrupted us:

“She’s amazing,” he said enthusiastically and, emboldened by a tad too much Rioja, we took his word for it.

And she truly was amazing! Avery Sunshine, an intensely charismatic American soul and jazz singer stole my heart that night, along with the hearts of just about everyone in the jam-packed venue.

I know next to nothing about soul, jazz and R&B, but before the first song had even finished, my heart and soul had fallen in love with Avery Sunshine’s beautiful, strong yet vulnerable, and above all deeply honest, voice.

There were no background singers, no dance routines, only Avery on the piano, her musical partner Dane Johnson on the guitar and two ‘borrowed’ musicians. And that was all she needed.

Avery Sunshine sang straight from her heart and soul and that made all the difference.

It was a poignant reminder that when we express ourselves from the heart, as Avery Sunshine did on stage that night, we touch our own inherent wholeness.