(I think porridge is “oatmeal” in the US.)
Ingredients
- Buckets of shared movement, play, fun and laughter
- Short and long form improv and clowning. Some new things, some we’ve done before.
- Sprinklings of meditations and poetry
- A dash of intention to nourish lightness, joy, freedom and fun in our lives
- Magic beans (sshhhhh!)
“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”
Anon or possibly Albert Einstein.
An Endless Supply
In the story of the magic porridge pot, the pot produces endless amounts of porridge/oatmeal. It’s a reminder that while we may run out of some things like time, we don’t run out of curiosity, joy and creativity. The more we explore, the more there is. There’s an endless supply if we nurture our ability to tap into it.
Sometimes we might be in difficult circumstances. Pleasant and unpleasant emotions can exist at the same time. Someone close to me has been unwell recently and I was really sad about it. And it was a beautiful sunny day. Both at the same time. We don’t get to choose only one colour of a rainbow. But as we open up a little bit more when we’re ready, all the colours become brighter.
What is this?
We don’t need to decide in advance what something is. We can explore what it is and what it could become. What we are and what might emerge. We don’t run out of curiosity until we choose to.
There’s a Zen enquiry “What is this?” To sit with exploring your sense experience before any labels of “That is a tree” or “This is good / bad.” What is happening right now?
In improv we do something similar. We start. We notice what’s happening. Then – usually – we make a choice and label it and see where it leads. We get to choose. So we make a life affirming choice. It’s all made up, so we practice making up things that are beautiful, joyful, fun and open us up to laughter.
We’re not one thing or another thing. There’s always everything.
Hope you can come to the class! Drop me a line if you’d like to ask anything
A lovely poem on this theme from Shel Silverstein via allpoetry.com
Zebra Question
Shel Silverstein
I asked the zebra
Are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Or you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on
And on and on he went.
I’ll never ask a zebra
About stripes
Again.
https://allpoetry.com/Zebra-Question
