Life on the Skinny Branches

My goodness, it has been awhile. My last post was March 1, 2020. Much has happened since. The world has changed. (And it’s not really changed.) I have changed. (And in so many ways, I’m the same.) I have been learning and living so much. (And I’ve been meeting my own resistances and fears all along the way.) So much has changed within me, I actually considered changing the name of this blog.…

Today I celebrate the extraordinary life of our sweet Miracle.

We helped her leave her weak body yesterday afternoon after an agonizing early day. We’d had the gift of 8 extra months with her thanks to fluids and meds; last June at the vet’s she was diagnosed with kidney failure and either IBD or lymphoma.

I swore three things that awful day: that I would not keep her around just for my…

I wrote a roadmap to true north in invisible ink

A child’s game that became a whole life

I secreted it from even my own true self

Tucked it away in my heart’s deepest strife

Countless skeins of yarn winding backwards in time

I followed a thousand strings

All leading to those who stood behind me, before me

The lost and the found, trapped in wounded wings

One by one, I…

Well, I hit a wall of resistance. (And I lost.)

I had planned last Friday to post a video I made for an audition submission, and then, promptly got “too busy” to post it…

Monday came and went…Tuesday came and went…

I could have posted smoother content, but some part of me knew I was rat-finking on myself by doing so, so what did I do instead? NOTHING.

Well, that is exactly the sort of behavior…

In the Mykonos Wind, Paradise Found

Luxury Indeed: A Magical Spot that Transforms You into a Goddess

A Perfect Moment Captured in Time spent with Amazing Women

#theGetMyWorkOutThereChallenge #DayTwenty-Four #flora #nature #magic #mermaids #mykonos

Falling Off the Wagon

I got very caught up in getting my work out there yesterday and did not post.

I am tempted to say that I “fell off the wagon.”

But the fact is, I put my attention elsewhere. And as one of my mentors, Erin Stutland recently posted about, there is no wagon! I was just living my life. Sometimes I get to everything I plan to, sometimes I do other things.

So here I am today, taking the time to post. I…

When life gives you lemons

Squeeze all you can out of ‘em

Take that tart juice, add some water

Sweeten it with some self-love

Then pour that lemonade

Out into the world

And celebrate your alchemy!

#TheGetMyWorkOutThereChallenge #whenlifegivesyoulemons #DayTwentyOne

Step Forward – Fall Back?

I had a fairly significant business “event” occur last week.

This “event” was disappointing, upsetting.

But beyond the momentary punch-to-the gut of it, I knew as this event happened that as a result, there were two paths I could go down as a result.

I could see it as a “setback“ and feel like a piece of shit. I could feel like a failure, slide into depression. Use it as evidence to feed…

Day Twenty

#TheGetMyWorkOutThereChallenge #callback #DayTwenty #actor

I let go today

Fingers furled and frozen

From years of tightened grip

Heart wound tight

Around memories yellowed

With time and wear

I let go today

Of all that’s been my home

For more than forty years

Stories I’ve existed in

Wrapped my breath around

My world within the world

After free-falling through

Years of numbed experience

And manufactured…

Voltereta (aka Somersault) is an award-winning, wonderful short film I was cast in some years ago. The director was Alex Morante, just out of film school. But it was clear to me from the audition that he had talent and would be going places.

At the time, I would not normally have agreed to a role that had no lines, but after meeting him and reading the terrific script, I knew I had to be a…

Dear Body ‘o Mine:

Just a moment of giving thanks to you for housing my soul this go ‘round.

I haven’t always been kind to you. Let’s face it: I have been an abusive partner much of the time.

Somehow I allowed you to become my battlefield, my own social media platform decades before such a thing existed. I expressed my anger and sadness through you by starving or overfeeding you, turning…

I admit, I have an obsession with clouds. And skies.

I just cannot get enough.

Miami Mix

Hudson Majesty

Mykonos Morning

#photography #clouds #sky #nature #TheGetMyWorkOutThereChallenge #Day15 #skyfetish #cloudporn

In the Meanwhile…

I did a solo cabaret show in 2010. I loved every moment of co-creating it, preparing it, rehearsing it, performing it. Every moment.

Then I recorded five songs from the show, also in incredible experience, though quite different.

Here’s a song from the show and from the CD. (I have copies for sale, but at the time, I was too shy about it to share them, and now, of course, no one buys CDs anymore!…

I got nothin’ today.

Seriously.

I did go to my acting class, which is something. I have been taking a serious craft class for years, whenever my teacher is here in NYC teaching, which is four times a year, a month at a time.

How does this constitute “getting my work out there?” Does it?

Does working on may craft count? I may not have anything to “show” for my time there, but boy there was a great…

I went to Greece this past August to reclaim a love of mine: cabaret singing.

If you’ve never been exposed to this incredible art form, I recommend you explore some. You will find many spectacular performers in all areas who also perform cabaret, especially in the major cities such as NYC, LA, Chicago, St. Louis.

A cabaret show (of the singing variety – not the topless kind) is a very intimate…