As If
Hello again!
It’s been almost a year since my last “Letter From the Artist”. And honestly there are feelings of shame about that. (Yeah, I’ve been reading more Brene Brown.) But I wanted to reconnect. There were many times over the past 10 months where I would start a letter only to question its importance and value and scrap it. There were also moments, like in any artist’s life, where my feelings of drowning in my chosen industry made the idea of finding a way to inspire others seem impossible. To be truthful, I’m battling those thoughts still today but find myself moved to push through the fear because we never know what small act we take could inspire someone else.
In an inspiring episode of The Long and The Short of It Jen Waldman and Peter Shepherd unpack the concept of “Acting as if..” with a focus on career. For example “what if I acted as if this big audition/interview is now the regular level of opportunity that is coming into my life?” What change does that create in attitude and action? I recently had the revelation that I must act as if people are watching, engaging with, and sharing my work.
Given the rise in unabashed white supremacist ideas and closely connected antisemitism, hate, homophobia and transphobia being unleashed I wonder if this acting as if could be something we use beyond personal endeavors. What if we act as if we have the power to comfort and provide healing to others? How about acting as if our words can create change? That our smallest action can create ripples we never see? It’s so easy to feel powerless but there is power in a text, a phone call, or a kind word. What if we act as if our words have power so that we can stand up and set the tone in the rooms we enter no matter what our roles? It's not easy but as I type this during my temp shift I find it funny how much my presence alone has brought people to remark how nice it is having me here. What if each of us acted as if our presence had that power? I don’t have any answers but in the questioning we find possibilities.
I’m sharing the podcast episode below and hope you get some inspiration out of it. I’m also resisting the urge to delete this and embracing the “acting as if” of it all.
The Long and the Short of It - Episode 209. Act As If
Stay well. Stay safe. Stay inspired.
Music and love, Byron