A Glorious Day is Dawning

The alarm didn't go off this morning. Not that I needed it to. My internal clock went off as usual at 5:30 a.m. There was a touch of annoyance at my husband for not setting the alarm as I laid in bed assembling my agenda for the day. As the "to do" list mentally grew so did my passion for the day and my eagerness to see what it would bring.

I have the most wonderful job tucked into the most wonderful life. Life's path takes such interesting jogs and turns as you journey through it if you are only willing to allow it. It's a lot like getting on a ride at a theme park. You know it's going to be wonderfully exciting so just get on and go with it. That's what I was thinking about this morning as I headed out to work. I thought about my path and the many twists it has taken with each new experience building on the previous one. Could I have been a director without having been an actress first? Would I have produced if I hadn't directed? Certainly my life as a dancer experiencing the masterful choreography of George Balanchine and then the fledgling work of Jerome Robbins prepared and prompted me to study acting. Could I have been a college professor if it hadn't been for the path already traveled? Are not all of these pieces, together with the parts my co-founder and other team members bring to the table, the fabric that makes up US Performing Arts?

I speak a lot about passion. I love what I do. I love working with our directors and faculty and customer service representatives, our designers, and most of all our students and parents. I am grateful to be on this journey of life, taking from the past and building to the future. It is from the present that the future springs. Actors are taught to live in the moment. To experience each action on stage or before the camera as if it were happening for the first time. To listen with fresh ears so that each response comes from an instinctive place. So this morning I stopped on the way to work to "live in the moment." I stopped to photograph the sunrise and watch the white pelicans fish for breakfast.