The Magic of Breaking Bread

The crux of our meetings has always been breaking bread together.  And there's something very special about this, for a few reasons.  We each bring something to share and we usually don't plan what we'll eat. We just show up, and somehow every aspect necessary to create a complete meal happens to be there.  This time is also a buffer between our personal lives and our creative work. We catch up on each other's days and lives until we're satisfied, and then we move on to the "work."  Our work is what it is because of our mealtimes!  We gather because we want to be together, we want to enjoy each other and relish the moments we share.  We talk and talk and talk.  And there have been times when we don't even get to the rehearsing part yet we leave totally satisfied.  

This past week, spending each day together, we agreed we would take turns cooking a full meal each evening. I did worry, as I have on occasion in the past, that we wouldn't have the time. Time to do what we needed to do...  But what I discovered, as I always do, is that what we need to do gets done. Not just in a direct, checking-off-the-checklist way, but in a more profound, foundational way. You have to experience it. Perhaps you already know what I mean. You just have to experience it.

And the crazy thing about Allowing and Letting Go and Enjoying and Basking and Nourishing Yourself and Taking Time To Be With Others is this: Magic Happens.
We finished our week in a place of inspiration that we never would have imagined beforehand. We have a more focused direction to move into.  
We. Have. Achieved!

Cheers!
Melanie

Those Cobwebs

Eugene Ionesco has given us a trampoline in his Exit the King.

King: "My bedroom's full of cobwebs.  Go and brush them away."
Maid: "...I removed them all while your Majesty was still asleep. I can't think where they spring from. They keep on coming back."
Queen, to the Maid: "...Go and get rid of those cobwebs again."
King: "...Those cobwebs, disgusting!  They give you nightmares!"

Our major project during this first creative week was to make over our playing space.  The barn was sanded, de-cob-and-spider-webbed, washed, de-webbed again, painted, mopped, de-webbed, and then we moved back in with the spiders.  We pulled everything out of the space and put most of it back, but this time with intention.  Feng-shui-like.

Funny how the inspiration for our creative project bleeds into our reality.  Those cobwebs.  It's us and the spiders, our new co-op.  It's got character.

-Melanie

Symbol

The beginning of our new "O"

Summer of Kings

On the eve of the eve of our first retreat, I find myself living the questions we will be diving into this next week.

And oh, why not share what we're researching!  We begin with... Kings.  Exiting.  That will be the first hint. Indulging, clinging, falling... a few themes.  I'll let the other Ochlosians chime in for more.  What I really want to mention here is the grand theme of life and death.

This morning I said goodbye to our elderly family pet, and arrived at work to be greeted by my charge, an 8-month-old pup I've loved since the day we met.  What a stark contrast between the two.  What I experienced at home the last few days was a dragging on, a lingering and a feeling of stagnation, as well as confusion and turmoil regarding what to do, and the big question of WHEN.  Arriving at work this morning, all was easy and light.  Puppy wanted to be scratched on the tummy, and his hair was soft and fresh.  So easy to like, so easy to be with.  (Don't get me started on the guilt that this realization brought on...)  I could literally smell a difference between the two energies.  The aromas of stagnation and clarity, of helplessness and joy.

And here I am catapulted into our collaboration.

This will be our Summer of Kings.

-Melanie