The Owl Reminded Me...

The owl reminded me...

I spent a recent August in a cabin-tent in Vermont at the end of a field next to a large green pond that edged the woods.

It was a way to quarantine to be able to see my family.

The first night high winds battered the tent as rain poured down. Fearful the tent would collapse, I perched until midnight ready to race to higher ground. A few hours later I was awakened by a full brilliant moon spotlighting my face.

August passed… each day pulling me further into solitude as I wrote by candlelight under a million stars, walked and watched the mornings and evenings rise and fall.

All that had changed in the world was far away, yet right there, because I was living away from contact with others. The hope was to clear my body and mind.

To see clearly—gain clarity on life as it turns this corner—something new is calling… what is becoming?

What is the actor’s landscape now?

My last day in Vermont the owl (above) appeared… watched me with round glistening eyes… there on the branch and then suddenly gone—leaving me suspended.

I wondered as I left the green fields and drove to New York City…

How will the actor attend to the changes in the world?

This challenge is how the artist comes alive—by immersing in all of it. By experiencing what is present rather than pushing to conquer the future.

The future is now in our hands to create.

How does the actor portray that becoming?

The actor practices staying centered.

The actor transforms fear into action, allowing sadness and despair to dissipate like clouds and new energy to emerge like morning sun.

Giving it expression

Actors must drop into their center to become present, leaving what they used to know in suspense in order to discover what is unfolding now, in the acting moment.

Actors allow something greater to live through them, to guide them even as they feel blind, even as they are frightened or confused. They trust the journey by living in the essence of their creativity.

This is how human evolution calls to the actor.

Those characters are already in you longing for expression. Waiting to be heard. Needing to be seen.

You will be challenged to bring out new parts of yourself.

They will energize the world, reflecting its potential as you find your own.

Even now as we are surrounded by questions… something is evolving, opening, beckoning.

By nurturing an inner tenderness toward the world, toward ourselves, our art grows. In solidarity we band together and bond.