Saturday, February 5, 2011

Cell by Cell

Last night's performance of Love Stories of the Bay was fabulous! The stories are powerful, funny, sad, and most of all, heartfelt. The diversity among the 29 readers was incredible as well. Two kids (8 or 10 years old?) all the way up to several--or more--seventy-somethings.

I enjoyed myself and ... I was exhausted by the end of the evening. It was a long night. The show--including intermission--lasted three hours. And I, who am used to being in bed as early as 8:30 or 9:00 pm, was up on stage reading my story around 10:15!

Due to considerable prep on my part (or perhaps because of my tiredness) I read with a low level of nervous energy. The major signs of my fight-or-flight response? A dry mouth and a tight body. Okay. So maybe I was ready to turn and run if the audience started throwing rotten tomatoes.

Today I spent the day quietly. I'm still healing and I want to give my body every opportunity to improve that's available. Rest is good. My late afternoon T'ai Chi Chih practice was, again, slow and silent. I'm really encouraging my body to relax and become quiet since the story I wrote and will read again tonight is called For the Love of ... Silence.

One of the other readers came up to me during intermission and told me that she really liked my story and loved the way that I read it during our first rehearsal several weeks ago. She said that she could feel the silence in the way that I spoke. What a wonderful compliment!

Despite the fact that I have an anxious personality I truly believe that my T'ai Chi Chih practice is building a quiet peace inside me. Day upon day. Year after year. Cell by cell.

Yes, I am grateful!

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