Sunday, February 24, 2008

Afternoon Meditations

This was written Saturday afternoon during what I hope to be many more meditations. The Indian Art Fair was taking place nearby.

Concentrate on your breathing and things become secondary, even distant in nature.

A cool breeze, almost chilly, blows from North to South. I breath and I acknowledge its properties, becoming almost calculating in behavior. It isn't felt, but its feelings are recognized.

Concentrate on your breathing and trains of thought pass by the station.

I'm walking a dog along a path. Soon an onslaught of potential possibilities invade that path like foul beasts ready to disrupt. I focus on the path ahead, and they disappear into the gloom.

This is possibility and outcome, a mindset of worry and dread and anticipation for what may or may not happen. This is the mindset that plagues me constantly. It must be controlled.

Drum beats of a percussionist sound in the distance. Cars pass; birds sing; people laugh, chat, and cough. The breeze is back again. It chills my spine, feeding goosebumps their essentials to grow.

I must move into the sun and embrace the warmth. My mind is calmed for now.

--David

Friday, February 22, 2008

Pardon

Meetings, auditions, scheduling, plays, films, etc.... these are the things that distract me from proper entries for this blog. Or actual entries at all. The events have not died down quite yet, but there is enough time to submit a much needed update on all the goings-on.

The last calendar year of my tenure at the University has begun already. Only a couple of classes stand in my way, classes that can easily be handled, allowing me to graduate from this place. With potential T.A. positions lined up in the next few months, it will be a while before I truly leave this campus. Not that I have any particular attachment to the University and do not want to leave, far from it. I just enjoy it here and until I save enough money up to take the Seattle Stuntman training course, I'll have to make do with what I have.

And what is it that I have? A growing family with my nephew's birth a month ago; a second family of sorts with the Capoeira Mandinga club that continues to grow and grow, hopefully leading to an academy; a new sense of purpose for what I want to do in life: become a stuntman. All of these fill me with a hope that whatever burdens or responsibilities I have, that it'll be just fine since I will grow and grow physically, emotionally, and morally.

Large events loom over the horizon for moi. The Batizado planning is in full swing for late April, and with the people in our group doing the absolute best job they could do, my excitement about it continues to grow. That same month is, if luck holds out on me, the One Act festival of plays. It will be exciting to be cast in one, but not upsetting if I don't. April's already a busy month with the Batizado. Two animated films with my voice work are to be shown at the Loft in May as well. I have not seen a single frame of either, so the completed products will be a sight to behold.

The next highway exit will be for Spring Workshop Ave., location of Martin McDonaugh's The Pillowman. Such a dark, dark comedy...

Ate logo for now,

--David