Three invitations
One reminder
Happy Monday, and Good Memorial Day to you.
I started my morning with these words to be considered from philosopher and Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
(Marcus Aurelius)
Do you agree or disagree?
I appreciate these words because they invite me to reflect about my mindset.
In my life, my mindset has indeed been the key culprit in what I’ve miserably failed to do, and the key ingredient in what I've accomplished.
There’s something empowering about that. There’s something maddening about it, too. I suppose it depends on how one looks at it. And there we bump into it again, don't we?
Point of view. Perspective. Interpretation. Mindset.
Whatever you decide to call it, it’s real. It matters... It’ll fuel something. What do you want to fuel today?⠀
Three invitations
Summer is getting nearer.
All week long as I’ve been seeing people in my tribe shake dust off their shoulders from the academic year, these words from Winston Churchill—British statesman and former Prime Minister—have been bubbling in my mind:
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
(Winston Churchill)
I’ve been thinking about the ideas of ‘time’ and of ‘mastery’. About how learning, growing, and unfurling is such a big, lifelong adventure.
Wherever you are in your journey today—wherever you feel you are—I have three invitations for you:
I invite you to trust that whether you see it or not, yes, you are indeed moving and expanding in the slow, mysterious act of unfurling.
I invite you to appreciate that it doesn’t happen all at once. It takes time.
I invite you to remember that Time is not personal. Even though we age, even though we get bored, Time is just Time. Time simply does what it does, oblivious of you or I. How we live with it, and what we make of it, is as personal as any of that gets. The work you’re doing will be seen eventually. Keep going.
Today in my little world
Today brings in the final rehearsal week for Steven Dietz’ This Random World.
It is one of my favorite contemporary plays. I think it’s a quirky masterpiece of subtlety. It’s funny, it’s tender and heart-squeezing, it’s sweet spirited, and it dramatises the sort of points of connection between people which aren’t always seen, or seized...
I’ve had the good fortune to collaborate with Metropolitan Performing Arts in Vancouver, Washington to direct it as an educational project with an ensemble of a few badass teen actors I’ve had the privilege of teaching and coaching over the last few years.
My rockstar teens are supported in the cast by Nancy Campbell, who joined The Monday Night Acting Lab in Fall 2019, and Eric Island, who played Mitch in my production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
I’m excited to get to share this project, which is my (and MPA's) first LIVE in-theatre work since the Covid-19 Pandemic swooped down at the start of 2020.
Today also brings the strangeness of a week without The Monday Night Acting Lab. I schedule breaks between cycles for practicality... Yet, when those breaks come around, I find myself feeling a wee bit lost at sea. The next cycle begins next week. I can’t wait to see who’ll be joining me. To learn more about my Monday class, you can read up, or register here.
Until next week,
-J.P.
Wonderful to hear about the MPA production, Jeffrey! Break a leg!