“If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
Dolly Parton
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 also 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.
Often what gets in our way of experiencing the whole spectrum of feelings is that we label the situation or ourselves as good, bad, happy, sad and so on. But we’re never just one thing. We don’t need to label events immediately. 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.”
In improv we do something similar. We start. We notice what’s happening. Then we choose to decide what it is 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 one of the classes! 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
