In another post, I wondered if I got into National Theatre School to meet Richard Pochinko. Let me amend that. Richard Pochinko’s ideas were the main thing I was supposed to LEARN at NTS. They’ve percolated in my brain for years. And I regret not looking him up in Toronto and training more with him…
Sometimes the Woo Woo doesn’t happen to you. But it happens around you. When our eldest daughter, Caileigh, was two years old, we let her know that we were expecting another child. We told her that she was going to have a brother or a sister soon. Immediately, she kept referring to the new arrival…
The old paradigm of being tough is to ignore the pain. Push through it. In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness talks about how real toughness is about listening to the pain. (Yes, I’m talking about this book again. It’s an easy read and highly recommend it!) Not listening to the pain can lead to injury…
As I was running this morning, I noticed the clouds. When was the last time you looked at clouds and saw shapes or figures in them? It had been a long time since I did that. But I took a break from my run to find some shapes today. I saw a crocodile. A person…
Not everyone is meant to be a parent. Some people want to be one, but it doesn’t work out for them. Some people don’t want to be one, but they become parents anyway. I always wanted to be a parent. It’s not like I dreamed of being a dad or anything. But I always knew…
One of the things I hate about doing a show is checking for friends after the performance. When the applause ends, the actors leave the stage. And we get out of our costumes and make up. If you know that you had family or friends in the audience, you get changed quickly. Otherwise, you can…
Deb and I have been married for almost 36 years. We share the same opinions about many things. But we don’t think alike. This amazes me. We play some word games like Wordle, Connections, and Strands. They are individual games we play on our phones. But we share our results. And it’s clear that our…
Many of us have heard the term “learned hopelessness”. Your ability to think for yourself and do things for yourself gets beaten out of you. From negative experiences. It a form of apathy. And in its most extreme form can lead to death. You just give up. Stephen Magness discusses this phenomenon in his book…
For four years, I had a gratitude practice. I would list 5 things that I was grateful for. Daily. They could be big things or little things. There were repeats, obviously. But it made me think about and be appreciative for what I’ve got. I started being less consistent in listing my gratitude in the…
Yes. You. You matter. You don’t have to worry about not being enough. You are enough. There’s no one in the world quite like you. And there never will be. Can you improve? Of course. Everyone can get better. But you are awesome as you are. Just saying it. In case you needed to hear…
peter gruner 