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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

All the World's a Stage


In the days when I did theater, I never let myself go. Even after the curtain rose, with the audience filling the chairs, I would find myself still repeating my lines off stage, afraid that the words I had recited countless times in the past weeks would escape me. This hindered me from ever truly giving myself over to the experience. I was never able to live in the moment on that stage or be true to the world in which my character was living. I didn’t trust myself enough.

Last night as I lay in bed, my mind was going over the list of things I needed to accomplish today. I saw myself going to the post office and soon I had a whole scene playing in my head. I rehearsed what I would ask the man behind the counter. « Bonjour! J’ai besoin de vingt timbres… » I stopped. « …pour les Etats- Unis. » No no no. « …aux Etats-Unis. » Wait. Which is it? And in that moment, I asked myself, does it matter? In all honesty, I think either phrase is correct. But what irked me was discovering my unrelinquished fear of making mistakes. I have asked for stamps countless times in French and have never walked away empty handed. So why do I still find myself repeating words and questioning something I know?

Shakespeare wrote “All the world’s a stage”.  There of course are many interpretations of what he meant by this. But for me, if I take this quote in its most literal sense, I find that my life on the stage is a magnified reflection of how I act in life.  Just like in those days of theater, it comes back to the simple truth that there’s a lack of trust within myself. The scenes I rehearse in my head are almost never what are played out. Instead of fretting over what I’m going to say to the man at the post office, I need to learn to just listen and respond to what comes at me.
Life is truly unpredictable.


A gift to myself: a Nutella recipe book along with my first creation.
For reasons unknown, I have grown quite fond of this chocolate, hazlenut spread while in Europe. 
Perhaps it was forced on me by the lack of peanut butter.
Regardless, I love Nutella and this has undoubtedly been my best purchase thus far.


4 comments:

  1. You and me both, sister!

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  2. Ummm...a Nutella cookbook?? All is right in the world.

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  3. umm for reasons unknown??? I know exactly why you are drawn to it...IT IS DELICIOUS!!!! ;)

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  4. I will too have to go purchase this thing you speak of...

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