Category: Writing
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I talk to my car
He makes me a better person. I talk to my car. Doing so makes me a better person. I also talk to my cooker, paintbrushes and washing machine. Sometimes I talk to the gravel on the drive, but I admit I worry the neighbours might hear. My relationship with things I talk to is real.…
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Joy is your Birthright!
Do you believe in the wisdom of Joy? Joy’s not a destination you trudge towards through valleys of misery. Joy is the path. Joy is your guide. Joy is the clean air you breathe, the water you drink, and the birdsong you hear as you travel. Joy is the life-force. It’s our birthright. A child…
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The most toxic thought of all.
It’s the most toxic thought of all. It underlies much unhappiness, self-sabotage, violence, anger, deceit, and so many other of the world’s ills. It’s a thought none of us are born with, but most of us learn. It takes many forms, but at foundation it’s simple this: ‘I’m not good enough.’ Sometimes it appears as:…
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Adapt or Reject?
When the world seems impossible….. Fit in/drop out? Adapt to ‘the system’/leave the system? Accommodate to the world/imagine new worlds into being? I write these as binaries — suggesting an either/or response. They’re actually dyads — two perspectives required for healthy growth. We live in times of exceptional, unsustainable and inhuman stress. The societies we’ve…
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It’s not your fault
…but might be your responsibility. For many of us, surviving is pretty tough right now — financially, emotionally, in terms of mental and physical health, maintaining relationships and community connectedness, keeping alive the spark of passion and joy. There’s a lot of pressure. Most of us feel it. All of us see how the pressure…
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Problems are not problems
Directing a show is a complex journey. Each production is unique. Yet there are recurrent stages. Most frequent — getting stuck: standing in a room of people looking to me for guidance and inspiration, feeling dried up, stale, repetitive and dull. I directed scores of shows over the decades. Starting from scripts, stories, ideas or…
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Finding Focus
Sunday was a tough day. My thoughts decided to gang up on me. I could have predicted it would be tough. I understand why. I’d plenty of ammunition in my thinking to stop it from being tough. Nonetheless, it was tough. I was distracted, unsettled, beset by demons. I’m about to launch ‘Hummingbird Wisdom; ‘How…
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Finding a Third Way
I was talking to someone the other day — a free call with a 30-something performer who felt deeply dispirited and wanted to talk. Like many of us, she’s struggling to find her way. Life is really tough for a lot of people right now. She lives in a country that’s struggling more than most.…
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Listen to your Grandmother!
…but don’t believe what she says I call it your ‘Grandma’s Voice’. (It could just as easily be a grandfather I guess, or an aunt or uncle. It’s the figure who sits on the step of a small Greek village and dispenses wisdom to younger people — whether that wisdom is welcome or not. Before…
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Listening to Silence
I was a noisy child. I got punished for it. School taught me that speaking was dangerous. I became a silent adolescent. It wasn’t a healthy silence. It was a silence of fear, repression, self-doubt. As an adult, I learned to make noise again. Sometimes I got very caught up in my noise. That wasn’t…