may day

I love it when words have different meanings. words, or phrases, or objects, or facial expressions, or emotions even.

A call for help from sailors or fisherman in their yellow galoshes on a boat in the middle of the ocean or the day when all the girls in the village get out their ribbons and dance and weave around the May pole. For example.

So May day it is. May. birthday incoming. spring. the birds and the bees. the flowers must be coming up...

And so they are. I am excited to report that in two weeks I will set out on an adventure of many unknowns and many points of potential wonder and wonderfulness. I go to NYC for three weeks to assistant-direct a play. Then I go to Williamstown Theater Festival for two months, where I will get to direct two one-act plays. And swim in the 'tubs' in the very nearby Great State of Vermont. I get to experience all the madness that a sort of 'theater-camp' for grown-ups might make you think of... Then, I get to go to Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod-- another Most Magical Place award-winner. I get to act in a play with a great director in a theater where the backstage is a stone's throw from the ocean. I get to spend one week living in an historic shack on the dunes in Provincetown because I won a lottery! I get to be in the same time zone as my family and driving distance for over four months!! And while I am gone the Little Bird theater company is going to do a one-act play I wrote called "Seeds" as part of a festival in June at the very beautiful Elephant theater. I feel like I am gloating or something but even as I am writing this I am in total disbelief at my incredible fortune. And I feel lucky and blessed and so much gratitude. It is CRAZY.

the one other time I felt this lucky was when I was seven or so I was visiting relatives in Saginaw, Michigan and there was some kind of fair and I kept winning all the prizes all day. I remember being so excited but then feeling like I also had to show everyone how excited I was;-- it was very exhausting. The big kahuna prize had been a large chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that was incredilbe-looking, it looked so fresh it almost looked wet, and I remember being TRULY excited about eating it and sharing it with my family. After we got home from the fair thing everyone was hanging out and doing fun stuff and I didn't want to miss anything but after much fighting it off and being defensive ("I am NOT tired") I fell asleep. I woke up and it was nighttime and everyone except my mom was gone out dancing or something and I said, "can I have a piece of cake now?" and you're not gonna believe this-- the cake was gone. They had eaten the WHOLE thing. Anyway, not exactly sure it relates but I guess I'm saying I KNOW I am very lucky. And, I haven't ALWAYS been sooo lucky... And yes by golly, I'm going to take advantage of these gifts and opportunities.

I am sinking my teeth in and I am holding on and I am traveling light because I am up for any adventure each new adventure leads me towards.

also, I found this incredibly eloquent:
(from the obituary of Albert Hoffman, Swiss chemist who accidentally discovered LSD)

"I entered into realities which were as real and even more real than the one of everyday, became more aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the plant and animal kingdom. I became very sensitive to all this and what will happen to all of us."

He died this week. He was 102.


traveling light indeed