Random Acts of Creativity.

Dream. Fight the good fight.

I started working with  high school and middle school students and they have turned my world upside down, inside out, and in all sorts of directions. My role is a theater consultant so I am working with the teachers to incorporate creative lesson planning, specifically theater, into their lessons. My goal is not to make them actors but to inspire them to create the world they want to live in. What is evident more and more is that we need to remind our youth to dream and turn these dreams into action. Working with these young people has made it clear that they need more of our support.

We need to be the example.  I went on a “random” (the universe knows what we need) Paulo Coelho binge and just read this passage from The Pilgrimage.  Our youth is taking our lead, if we do not continue to dream we cannot expect our youth to.

“we must never stop dreaming.  Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body.  Many times in our times in our lives we see our dreams shattered and our desires frustrated, but we have to continue dreaming.  If we dont our soul dies, and agape [A love that stems from the ability to see the divine spark in all life] cannot reach it.

The good fight is the one thats fought in the name of our dreams. when were young and our dreams first exlpode inside us with all their force, we are very couragous, but we havent yet learned to fight…We become our own worst enemy.  We say that our dreams were childish, or too difficult to realize, or the result of our not having known enough about life.  We kill our dreams because we are afraid to fight the good fight.

The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time.  The busiest people I have known in my life always have time to do everything.  Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do.  They complain constantly that the day is too short.  The truth is, they are afraid to fight the good fight.

The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties.  Because we dont want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle.  For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; whats important is only that they are fighting the good fight.

And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace.  Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give.  In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievment.  We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life.  But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle of our dreams-we have refused to fight the good fight.”

Friends, continue to dream.  our children need us. 

Random moment of Inspiration. 1.5.12

I was walking to the bank to deposit money so I could make my payments.  One of my least favorite things to do. I crossed the street and looked up and connected with this leaf and I thought “Are you Freddie or Daniel?”  The day changed and I was grateful to be walking in a tshirt in January.

I was introduced to The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life For All Ages by Leo Buscaglia in high school.  As part of our closing night ritual Terry Schwinge would read this to the cast and the room would fill with tears.  Thank you Shwinge for these moments and inspiration.

“Freddie loved being a leaf. He loved his branch, his light leafy friends, his place high in the sky, the wind that jostled him about, the sun rays that warmed him, the moon that covered him with soft, white shadows. Summer had been especially nice. The long hot days felt good and the warm nights were peaceful and dreamy. There were many people in the park that Summer. They often came and sat under Freddie’s tree. Daniel told him that giving shade was part of his purpose.

‘What’s a purpose?’ Freddie had asked.

‘A reason for being,” Daniel had answered. “To make things more pleasant for others is a reason for being. To make shade for old people who come to escape the heat of their homes is a reason for being. To provide a cool place for children to come and play. To fan with our leaves the picnickers who come to eat on checkered tablecloths. These are all the reasons for being.”

Creative Work

To create.

Be closer to the creator.

Play with the innocence of a child and the wisdom of a grandfather.

This is what I am devoting my life to.  What does this mean?  I don’t have a concrete answer because like one of my mentors says “its your journey” and a journey is constantly changing and being rediscovered.  So far what life has taught me is that in order to enjoy the journey we must release ourselves from any fear that is holding us back.  Easier said than done but once we start doing it we realize how easily it can be done.  Why do we fear creativity?  A lot of mine come from the fear of instability, comfort, and isolation.

 I was (past tense used purposely to change my way of thinking) afraid that I would not be stable if i chose a path of creativity. I felt that I needed to have security in all parts of my life. My relationships, work, finances. To be honest this was all deriving from my need to control every aspect of my being. If you watch a child or a grandparent you start to notice how free they are, how they accept innocence and play.  This is the kind of energy that I want to bring into life.

enjoying the journey.

i am a work in progress. The hard part is letting myself enjoy the process while staying focused and centered.  I have met so many amazing people that have amazing gifts and at times it is overwhelming.  What i am learning is to have patience and to trust with an open heart that the fruits of our labor will manifest itself at the time that its supposed to.  I am a student of life and life isnt short, its a lifetime. my goal is to ensure that i give myself completely to every relationship, every role i play, every project i work on. 

my dad told me once when i was younger that our goal should be to wake up everyday with a smile and to give thanks to god and go to to sleep in the same way. so that is what i am trying to do.

Call To Action.

I have aways felt connected to the spirit of creativity, revolution, and movement.  To the stories and voices intertwined by that belief that people are good despite the number of unspeakable acts that happen every second around the world. I am an idealist and dreamer but I understand that these gifts will be useless if I spend all my times in an imaged world.  If change is going to happen it has to happen here on the ground, in our own communities, in our everyday life.  Theories and ideologies of achievement and prosperity are powerful only when they can be realized by the people that they are created about.  I believe with all my heart that creativity can heal and that art is necessary to keep our spirits lifted. I was given the gift of being an actor, I dont think we choose to be actors I think we are called to it.  It gets tough to continue sometimes because your mind and spirit begins to clutter with false truths, “you need to be famous,” “you have to look like this,” “you are not worth it.”  No one should ever tell or make anyone feel that they are not worthwhile. But despite all the negative that can come with it this is how I feel that I can make a difference.  By being a storyteller.  Thats what I love about the process of the craft, we get to connect with others and experience a life that is not our own and then we get to share that with others, it is how I feel connected to humanity. 

I am also aware that I have to work at resisting the urge to be apathetic or to let fear get the best of me.  Sometimes I want to change the world and sometimes I want to sleep all day.  I don’t think that thats too different from what everyone else is experiencing.  What keeps me going is that I have experienced those moments when I have jumped off the ledge and was able to fall freely without fearing the fall or the ground.  I was weightless and energized.  Its like being underwater in the ocean with your eyes closed; you allow the currents to move your body however they like and you trust that you will find your way to the top because your body knows to follow the light of the sun.  We will always follow the light of the sun and we cannot let anyone or anything tell us differently.  

This is where I am at right now on my journey.  I am working at living a life where I can combine my art and my activism to be a good human being, to be able to give to those who need it and most importantly to find that sense of solidarity with others.  I have been meaning to start this blog for a while and took a class assignment to loose my fear.  In the beginning I thought that this would be where I would share my experiences to call others to action but I have realized that thats not what it is for.  This is a call to action to myself to hold myself accountable and to inspire myself to continue, even when I do feel like sleeping all day. 

I went back to school for my BA in sociology and it has been a rewarding experience.  I have met some amazing people that have inspired me to no end.  With the help of some friends we started a group on campus called the socialART project where we worked on using creativity to bring about social change. We started by asking one question: “what matters to you, what keeps you up at night?” what we realized what they so many of us were passionate about the same issues, we felt overwhelmed and hopeless, and we wanted to find a way to do something.  We have done some things and will continue to develop this group and branch out into our communities but what has been the most rewarding thing to come from this so far is that we were able to create a community, a family really, that was there to support each of us in what we want to do.

I have to remind myself that it is that simple.  Pick something that makes you passionate and go for it.  I read this quote and it has resonated with me ever since, “your work is to find your work and with all your heart give yourself to it.”  I know we can all do this. 

I am going to keep this blog going because i cant ask for openness if i am not open (ive never done this and im sure this is too long for blog standards but its ok). feel free to visit, and start your own.

-Energy