"Filth" by Irvine Welsh and Choice

When I went to see the show "Filth" at Sage Theatre directed by Kelley Reay, I had no idea what to expect.  I had a feeling it was not going to be pretty.  But I am really glad that I went.  I am glad because the show reminded me anew that not everyone comes from the same background.  And it is important for me to remember this so that I am a better person to others.  I will continue to plan carefully what it is that I do take in.  At the same time, I am learning how good it is to consider the worlds of others and to not turn a blind eye to them.  We can learn from each other. 

As I watched equity actor Frank Zotter play 28 characters (crazy but true) with the main being police officer, Bruce Robertson, I found myself thinking that every single ugly in this character's life - the drugs, the cursing, the drinking, the watching porn- each was a choice.  Eventually, we learn that his wife is not coming back and that the home he grew up in was filled with great criticism and anger.  This inheritance kept playing out in his life as a curse symbolized by a terrorizing worm growing in his belly.  We could see how the choices of parents impact the choices of children. 

There was one line in particular in the show that stood out.  Bruce has gone Christmas shopping, not to his delight.  He's walking back from making his purchase when he sees a man collapse in the street fighting for his life.  Bruce responds and does CPR but to no avail.  The man dies.  Shortly after, we hear Bruce ask "What makes a good man?" 


It has got me thinking about filth and about choices.  What it is that makes one person's life so filthy and another person's life so clean?  Is it really all the stuff we do or don't do?  Are those of us who have grown up in healthier environments really so much better than those who haven't? 

As it is getting to that time of year, Easter, I was reading in Matthew where Jesus tells the disciples that they are going to betray him and leave him. They ALL deny the possibility. Every last one of them. And then they ALL do exactly what they said they wouldn't.

So we all have the capacity to choose good things or ugly things in us. It is what we do with this that makes a difference. Just because we think we won't and did not come from that kind of background doesn't necessarily mean we won't. The possibility is always there. It's definitely a choice what we do.  Fact is, we all need the help of God.  

Designing with you...

Wanda
http://www.reinholdtproductions.ca

Lives of Meaning

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what it is that makes our lives meaningful or special. I've come to the conclusion that the meaning flows from whatever definition we give life.

What do you think makes our lives meaningful?

And I think Sarah McLachlan says it so perfectly. Here's the lyrics to Ordinary Miracle and a video to listen. May it bless you as much as it has me.



It’s not that usual when everything is beautiful
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

The sky knows when its time to snow
You don’t need to teach a seed to grow
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Life is like a gift they say
Wrapped up for you everyday
Open up and find a way
To give some of your own

Isn’t it remarkable?
Like every time a raindrop falls
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Birds in winter have their fling
And always make it home by spring
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

When you wake up everyday
Please don’t throw your dreams away
Hold them close to your heart
Cause we are all a part
Of the ordinary miracle

Ordinary miracle
Do you want to see a miracle?

Its seems so exceptional
Things just work out after all
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

The sun comes up and shines so bright
It disappears again at night
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Keep Partnering!

Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese.
Have you tapped into your richness?
http://www.kaizenworks.org

What??! Did I Just Miss a Moment?

Ho, ho! This is the second time I've been asked to consider whether or not I am "living in the moment" (and whenever something comes up repeatedly, I figure that it is important that I listen!).

So what does this phrase mean exactly? Do I have any hints whatsoever? I think I do from two sources....

Any guesses from you as to what this phrase means?

Here's an article about it...

Keep Partnering!

Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese.
Have you tapped into your richness?
http://www.kaizenworks.org

Are You Choosing a Message of Gloom or Vavoom?

Have you seen the show on A&E called "Intervention"? It's true stories about people who are addicted to alcohol or drugs and their response to their family and friends when they gift them with an opportunity to get well. I've watched 2 of them now and this second one about Trent really hit home. (I highly recommend watching the episode if you get a chance. They are online.)

Trent is a man in his late 30's who is addicted to drugs and is continually making decisions to do drugs rather than to see the value in his life who was also in a terrible auto accident. (This is where I was drawn in. The car looked like mine does BTW.)

Unfortunately, he chose to see the accident as doom and to think that his life was basically over. His attitude toward his accident reminded me of a conversation with a counselor that I had in which I was asked what message I was taking from my own accident. I said that I was hearing a reminder to be focused and to lead a simpler life by being focused. In addition, I felt that the accident was a confirmation that trusting in God rather than my own strength is best. This is definitely a different response from Trent's.

I tell this story because it so clearly describes what I am talking about when I say "creating the life you want". It illustrates that we all make choices that create our lives.

How are you looking at your life? How you see your life will impact your legacy. The good news is that we all have the ability to see the richness and to choose to live it!

Thoughts?

For more on this story and my thoughts, check out my article published on Ezine Articles.

Keep Partnering!

Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese.
Have you tapped into your richness?
http://www.kaizenworks.org
articles at http://www.ezinearticles.com

What??? Depression a Choice?

"Wow. I never thought of it that way before. You have a choice?"

Lately in my conversations, I have noticed that people are very interested in how I am describing parts of my life. For e.g. that I CHOSE depression a few years ago after an organization I was involved with handled a change of staffing in a poor way or that I CHOSE not to think first about suing the driver that caused my accident and injuries but to think about him and his needs.

People are so surprised that these kinds of things are just choices. Don't we just go through them? Aren't they just something that happens?

What do you think?


Keep Partnering!

Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese.
Have you tapped into your richness?
http://www.kaizenworks.org

Choosing Power

Some of you may have noticed that I changed my signature on my email. It now includes a quote from George Bernard Shaw and it says, "Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. "

I have been doing lots of thinking about creating and imagining and how that manifests in our lives. When I came upon this quote by Shaw, I realized that it spoke of the Law of Attraction and I just had to have it on my email. It fits perfectly with my thoughts right now.

The Law of Attraction is a scientifically proven law that can be stated this way: (from Michael Losier's book, "Law of Attraction") "Whatever you give your time and energy and focus to, it is that which you will have in your life."

Interesting that I have been thinking about the law and I find a quote about it, eh? (The Law of Attraction right at work!) The other very intriguing part of it is that I found a quote on this from a world renowned playwright. How exciting to find that an artist who thought some of the same things I have been thinking!

When I realized that someone with a love for theatre and the arts just like myself was speaking about this law, I wanted to dig a little farther into his life. I've read some of the plays that Shaw wrote such as "Arms and the Man" and "Pygmalion" and I have seen them on the stage. But I did not realize how much of a positive social impact this man had on society.

Perhaps Shaw's greatest accomplishment was the "finding of the Fabian Society, a socialist political organization dedicated to transforming Britain into a socialist state, not by revolution but by systematic progressive legislation, bolstered by persuasion and mass education. The Fabian society would later be instrumental in founding the London School of Economics and the Labour Party. Shaw lectured for the Fabian Society, and wrote pamphlets on the progressive arts, including The Perfect Wagnerite, an interpretation of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, and The Quintessence of Ibsenism, based on a series of lectures about the progressive Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen." - taken from the University of Pennsylvania English Department.

According to Wikepedia, "His main thrust in the Society was that social class worked to serve its own ends, and that those in the upper echelons had won the struggle. He believed the working class had failed to promote its interests effectively, which made him highly critical of the democratic system of his time. Shaw's writing, as evinced in plays like Major Barbara and Pygmalion, has class struggle as an underlying theme. Notwithstanding that, Shaw was not a Marxist in the traditional sense, and abhorred the aggressiveness of Trade Unionism."

Although I think Shaw was extreme and a little harsh at times in his evaluations and beliefs, I really have fallen in love with this man of the late 1800's. He truly believed and promoted this idea of creating what you focus on. The working class had created their own situation, he said. They had made their own lives what they were. He believed in man taking responsibility for their actions and situations and not blaming others through such actions as strikes and lawsuits. He believed in honest and open relationship and peaceful persuasive discussions. For it is by peace that peace is created in lives.

That brings us back to the Law of Attraction. I would say that when you concentrate on something, it grows. And that is what excites me about living and doing the work of encouraging and creating partnerships that are highly effective and powerful! If you focus on the positive, highly effective and powerful stuff of partnering, your partnerships will grow.

On the other side of the coin, if you focus on words and phrases of ingratitude, for example, the results over time can be devastating.

Wouldn't you rather accumulate the stuff of power?


Keep partnering!

Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese
Who are you growing?
Kaizen Works

The True Meaning of Being Free

I had a disappointment recently. I applied for a number of internship positions and did not hear back from any of them. This was hard for me. I began to wonder what this could mean and created many scenerios in my mind. Of course, I became quite emotionally attached to one or two of them, and formed opinions and conversations based on my experience.

One of the conversations was with a friend with whom I confide. After I shared with him my results, he said that although he did not know the exact meaning, that he thought that perhaps there could be 1 of 3 possibilities:
1. It could mean that I should not look any further into this.
2. It could mean that it would be good for me to continue to learn and grow as it is not quite time yet for an internship.
3. It could mean that if a persist and continue to apply that eventually I will get in.

I went into my coaching session the next day with the idea that there could not be any other explanation. I had concluded that I needed to decide and act upon one of the 3 possibilities, that is until my coach shared with me a remarkable idea and thought....

"What if it meant nothing?" she asked me.

I was taken aback. How could it not mean anything? After all, I was disappointed and frustrated by what had happened. That means something, doesn't it? The lack of response is a sign that I should quit, isn't it?

Her response was that it only meant something if I wanted it to.

At that point, I realized that it was meaning something because I believed it meant something. No one else was putting that same meaning on it.

(I have been learning the fine art of using fear to create a positive action plan rather than fighting it or avoiding it. And it has become an exercise that is changing the way I do business and live out my life and career. This was unexpectedly turning out to be an additional lesson in living above the fear!)

It's taken me a few days to grasp what she was saying. However, I have come to realize that she is right. The possibility of it not meaning anything is actually the most healthy and the best possibility. It can and does not mean anything unless I want it to. And to further this thought, if I decide it means something and settle on that meaning, I automatically choose to have that same kind of experience in the future. Like attracts like - the Law of Attraction.

Humans are the highest created entity on earth. As a human, you and I have the ability to think ideas and to create meaning. We make conscious and sub-conscious choices constantly. We are spiritual, intellectual, and physical at the same time. This is what makes us different from any other living thing on earth. We have considerable power at our fingertips.

What this means is that when we have an experience like I did with my applications, we have an opportunity to CHOOSE to think of it in a certain way. Our choices are broad - from "I hate them for denying me the courtesy!" to "It's ok if they don't want to respond. I will apply to others who do." and all the choices inbetween.

What's key for us to remember is that our choices impact our emotions and it is the emotional charge on the experience, as Bob Proctor indicates in his Born Rich series, that attracts to us either a similar or different experience in the future.

So, if I were to decide, although I thoroughly believe in my heart of hearts that I am to persue this kind of work because it is a passion of mine, that this experience meant that it was over for me, I would probably begin to feel really terrible and sad about the experience. Eventually, I might even become angry about it. This emotion would then continue to bring about the same results over and over until I made a change.

In other words, by making a CHOICE to feel nothing instead about the experience and to continue to submit applications in other places, I am choosing to not place meaning on the situation. It just is. It happened and that is all. Nothing more. What freedom!

But we want to place meaning on things, don't we? We sure do! I know I do and I know that most people in my life do. And why is that? Because we want to be secure and we want to have control. We define ourselves by the meaning we place on things in our life- from our family and environment to our work and the responses we get. If we claim to know what a situation means, we look as if we have things in hand.

But do we really have control? How many possible explanations could there be? Take my situation with my applications, for example. There could be tons of reasons why I have not heard back. What would be the benefit of taking the time and energy to spend time on some or all these reasons to decipher or conclude which one of them is true? A crazy making notion for sure, especially when comparing it to remaining confident and secure in who I am in the midst of all that is happening around me.

I think this is the true meaning of being free! When who I am and what I believe is firmly established and not effected by what happens around me, then I am truly free.

And I don't know about you, but this sounds like a much better life than worrying about the why's and the how's!

Stay tuned for more on this subject. I invite you to join me in living out this approach to life.


Keep partnering!

Wanda
www.kaizenworks.org

Creating Life

written on Wednesday, December 06, 2006; moved December 17, 2006

What Do I Want? Current mood: pleased Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes *To be a part of a community of artists and business network that sharpens me and also gives me opportunity to sharpen others. *To be accountable and grow from each and every experience I have in business and in the arts by having a coach/advisor/mentor for every aspect of my career. *To coach artists in the creation of community, money, respect, network and mentoring *To partner artists with businesses to form a win win situation. *To practise what I preach with such a powerful integrity that people will notice and want to be a part of what I have. *To be known by, nurture and inspire artists and leaders in business to sharpen one another and create/build dreams which create a better world for all *To be paid for what I do at the rate of a professional theatre director to the rate of a professional film director. *To be respected and sought after in my field by my colleagues and by those I work with - I want to do multiple projects with multiple people. Ahhh, that feels great to get that out! May it be so!

Sharing without much to give? Current mood: excited Category: Life No matter what we do or where we are, one of our major needs as humans (besides food and sunshine) is nurturing and encouragement. Unfortunately, I have found in my work and life that those people who are involved in the creation of any kind of art (from sculpting to designing a set to directing) or those who are in leadership of teams seem to be the ones that are most lacking in it. It's crazy! What are the people that nourish and challenge by sharing of their skills and their talents doing with an empty barrel? How can you create and give away something you don't have? I don't believe it is possible because I have seen how impossible it is in my own life. I'm an artist who is also a leader and a business owner. When I have gone into a rehearsal process filled up to the rim with encouragement and nourishment for my person, I have seen myself lead and guide the other artists I am Directing to create something quite brilliant. Most of the time, it has been unplanned and spontaneous - the best kind of creation. These times are thrilling and are becoming more and more frequent. So what gets those juices flowing? What fills up the barrel? Well, for me, it was learning how to nurture myself. I believe that knowing how to nurture yourself is the first step to being able to give to others. Once you know how to do that, the best of you begins to ooze into the lives of others. I like what Julian Cameron quotes, "The worst that can be said of a man is that he did not pay attention." By learning to pay attention, I have learned that we will have much to give. What do you think?

Growing in progess!

written Wednesday, October 04, 2006; moved to this blog on December 17th, 2006

Movin' On Up! Current mood: accomplished Wow! Things are moving now. I have gotten my domains for my website and, in addition, I have made some contacts within the theatre directing community. I meet with one next week (a week from today and I also am in email talks with another. It's been fun looking and discovering some things in the film community too. I'm getting closer to finding a film director who can take me on a project. I can't wait until I can AD or at least work beside a director. I'm thinking that maybe a Casting Director position would be a good fit for me. Some of my colleagues tend to agree. What do you think? The show is going very well. Halo is an halarious comedy with some very awesome tragic twists and turns too. I believe very much that this cast is a very good one. They are showing much dedication and pride and skill in their work. I am so pleased to have them on board. Working scenes has got to be the most fun of all the different stages of putting a show together. I'm working from the same kind of perspective as Harold Guskin. I like his stuff because when I put it together with more intellectual approach to directing, a very cool Coaching approach rises out of the work. I'm so looking forward to seeing how much stronger this show is going to be then my last. I'm pretty sure that it will be not only because I have grown but because the cast and crew that I have are all growing in their skills too. I'm pumped about our shows! I hope to see you there! Not only is the show going well, but I have 2 more clients that I can support via my online work. Being a Virtual Partner has become a lot of fun. I can do this no matter where I am. And that makes me happy. My goals, plans, and hopes are coming true little by little. I look forward to more of what God has for me. How are you doing with the planning of your personal goals?