About

I am an actor and former dancer (ballet not table) just trying to figure it all out. I encounter a lot of characters and  some of them are worth writing about. I am (not surprisingly) over-dramatic, overly-sensitive, impulsive, a little psychic and tend to over-analyze just about everything. On the flip side of that I’d like to think that I am compassionate, silly, intuitive and despite all the evil that exists in the world, tend to look for beauty/good in people, places and things.

I suffer by day as a busy professional office-type, but most the time I feel like I’m twelve and should be living in a treehouse. By night I moonlight as an actor in Austin’s thriving arts scene.

My “PL” (philosophy of life) as my college philosophy professor Dr. Rosenthal taught us, is the simple (obvious?) principle that our inherent value comes from within – the power of the spirit. Who we are, our thoughts and actions, and our feelings  are our essence, not what diploma we have, where we work or how much is in the bank. This seems painfully cliche but I’m not seeing many people successfully doing it – including me. I’m trying.

Related to that, I believe that the root of happiness is discovering and following your passion. It’s one of the most important things we can do for ourselves AND for those around us (see my post about Gladys Hearne and ‘tending to your burning desire’). But it’s also the most difficult.  It takes courage to stand up to people who would rather see you on a different path or to get away from prescribed notions about what we ‘should or shouldn’t’ do.

Following your bliss is a much harder road but ultimately more fulfilling because you are calling the shots, taking responsibility (which is empowering) and honoring your ‘burning desire’. Doing that alone is taking loving care of yourself;  which translates into taking good care of others. Which seems to be the whole point.

“when love and duty are one; grace is within you.”

Things I’m obsessed with and want to blog about (which fluctuates daily)…  are art, theatre, dance, fashion, nutrition, dollhouses, quilts, vintage anything, basketball, immaturity, characters, TV and so much more. I also want to cover in my blog the minutia in life; those random little things you think that don’t matter that end up being the bulk of your days.

I saw the movie Ghost Town the other night and the lead character (Tea Leoni) said:

“We just get the one life, you know. Just one. You can’t live someone else’s or think theirs is more important just because it’s more dramatic. What happens matters. Maybe only to us, but it matters.”

Which leads me to think of one of my favorite poems that I’ve had on my wall forever:

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain:
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

***

I guess I just don’t want to live in vain.

So that’s me in a 500 word nutshell. Hope you’ll stay awhile and enjoy the run-on sentences and daily drama.

Cheers, Bird