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    • The Book: The Perpetual Visitor
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"...like gold in dark times..."

6/28/2018

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PicturePhoto by Krissia Cruz on Unsplash
My Friends, it's been another wild week in this world and if you have even a small sense of what it happening politically in our country right now, chances are that you are overwhelmed. Children torn from the arms of their parents by our own government, the EPA passing dangerous pesticides through for use on the food we eat, and all kinds of concerns about Supreme Court nominations to come. I have stewed, raged, cried, read a lot of Harry Potter, and felt a stubborn hopefulness bubbling under the surface.  Big Feelings are everywhere and it's easy to not know what to do or where to turn.

I came across this beautiful reflection by the American write Clarissa Pinkola Estes this week, as it was shared on social media by an artist I know and admire. It doesn't take away any of the sting or fear, but helped me to reclaim a glimmer of hope and made me want to take care of myself so that I can help others. I hope this passage does the same for you. 

May we continue to resist in ways big and small, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to take care of ourselves. March, donate, volunteer your time, and dare to believe we can win against hate and greed. Creative souls are made for times like these. Our imaginations can help us envision a future we cannot yet see. Our belief in freedom, beauty, truth, and love will helps guide us,  It's a marathon, not a sprint and we need every single one of us.

                                    ______________________________________________________________________________________________

"My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

​You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.

We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for."

By Clarissa Pinkola Estes
American poet, post-trauma specialist and Jungian psychoanalyst, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves.

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Motivation Monday

6/25/2018

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Picture
Jessica Williams in The Incredible Jessica James.
Have you seen The Incredible Jessica James on Netflix yet? It is easily one of my favorite things I have watched this year (in bed in my pajamas, eating cold gluten free pizza) and though the entire film is bursting with inspiration, there is one particular moment that has really struck me in a way I can’t forget.
In the film, Jessica is a playwright who is racking up rejection letters and at the same time, teaching theatre to kids in New York City. When she takes her students on a weekend playwrighting retreat Upstate, Jessica gets to meet playwright Sarah Jones, one of her idols. In a real to life fan girl moment, Jessica tells her that she wants to be a playwright and gushes about how Sarah Jones has “made it” in the theatre and how someday, she hopes that she can finally arrive on the scene as well.
​

Rather than reveal the secret to the top or share some lifehack to hustling for your dream, Sarah Jones just smiles and says "You're doing it. This is it. There's kind of, not more to it than that."

I love this. I cannot tell you how much time I have spent worrying about if I’m actually doing it “right” or “enough” instead of just doing what it is I love to do.

Are you writing? You’re a writer.
Do you act? You’re an actor.
Love to sing? You’re a singer.
Can’t get through a day without dancing? You’re a dancer.

We get too caught up in believing there’s a secret to getting recognized as the creative that we already are. We spend too much time wishing for the world to recognize who we really are. We withhold our own approval of ourselves from ourselves and cause ourselves to suffer so much.

What do you love to do? Do it and know that you’re doing it, and that that’s the only secret that there is.

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Podcast Episode #6:  Don't Leave Your Creativity Hanging

6/20/2018

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Picture
Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
It's here! Hot off the presses, Episode #6 of the Perpetual Visitor Podcast is now ready for you to listen to below. I recorded it on Sunday, hence the greeting at the start of the episode, and thought it would be the ideal Wednesday listen to help motivate you through that mid-week slump.

On today's episode I'm talking about why it can be so hard to get started on a project or set aside time for creativity as well as offering some practical tips that will help you gain some traction and get on with the magic making! We'd probably never stand our friend up for dinner, so why do we blow off our creativity and intuition? In order to get ideas down, we have to show up.  Life is too short not to pursue the things you love, so give this episode a listen and then get started on that creative idea TODAY.
Listen to "The Perpetual Visitor Podcast" on Spreaker.
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Motivation Monday

6/18/2018

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Picture
Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash
Happy Monday! Have you seen the soul shaking performance of “Seasons of Love” from Rent by the incredible students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the Tony Awards on June 10th? This is one of the most brave and beautiful things I have ever seen.
On the same note, make sure you watch Melody Herzfeld, the drama teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as she accepts the award for Excellence in Theatre Education at the Tonys.

“Imagine if arts were classes that were considered core — a core class in education. Imagine... Ours is only one small part, yet it’s the most important part of a child’s education. ... We have all known that the future of the world was about collaborative creativity."

No day but today, my Friends. There’s no better (or other) time to speak up, tell our story, be seen and heard, and light up the world with the gifts that only we can bring to it.
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    Author

    My name is Melissa and I'm an actor, playwright, author, filmmaker, and teaching artist who wants to help you discover, cultivate, and care for your creativity. 
     
    What does being creative mean to you?

    How do you play every day?

    This is a space for taking a break, a breath,  and finding ways to flex our imagination and find the joy where we can. 

    ​No one is going to present us with a ready made creative life--we have  to step up and gift it to ourselves. I'm so glad you're here.

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