Toronto is a city that never ceases to surprise. Last night alone, it sent me on nine unique and inspiring trips that I won’t soon forget.

I entered a downtown, grassroots arts and theatre centre with more than a hundred other people, grabbed a beer at the cash only bar and a chair from the next room over and sat to listen to the personal, real life stories of nine complete strangers.

One gentlemen shared lessons of why you shouldn’t talk to strangers, which he learned during a stint living in New York City – with drunken teenagers, a secretive blind man and a table of someone else’s dinner guests.

Another bared his soul on stage as he told the harrowing tale of watching his father die.

One unfortunate soul told the story of how a complete and utter douchebag of a guy turned into her long term boyfriend. It was supposed to be a happy ending…I have an opinion about that.

A group striving to ignite the storyteller in everyone, the Raconteurs, hosted the evening, which I discovered through a random radio interview that same morning. And it reminded me of why I love this city…

…the nakedness of its art…

…the hidden gems that are somehow surviving beyond the bright lights of the city’s biggest streets…

…the beauty that is its grassroots community.