Joy

My assumption is that everyone that visits this blog on a regular basis loves acting or creating on some level.  I would also guess that many if not all of you have a dream to live by your art.

It's a great dream.  It's a great goal.

It may never happen.

Now, before you get your nose all out of joint, I'm not saying that to discourage you.  At all.  Promise. :)

It is my firm belief that if you love to act, you should act.  I also believe that acting is a viable career choice.  Some have insisted that this belief of mine qualifies me for a padded cell, or at the very least, a long and detailed interview with a licensed professional.

What I am saying is that sometimes, we base the success of our lives on whether or not we're succeeding at acting as a career.  I'm also saying that this maybe isn't the way we want to exist.

We can choose to live joyfully.  Now joy, for me, is different than happiness.  Happy is transitory, fleeting, insubstantial.  I think it's difficult (if not impossible) to be happy in moments of pain.

Joy, however, is something we can have with us always.  Joy doesn't depend on external circumstances.  We can be smack dab in the middle of seeming tragedies (like the loss of an agent, a "failed" audition, the giving of a primo role to an acting rival...or something much more significant) and still have a sense of joy.

Joy is a sense of perspective.  Joy isn't limited by the normal human constraints we normally operate under.  Joy is being connected to others, as we feel ourselves grow and expand outward into a universe filled with infinite possibilities.

Now, before I get too mystical on you (I know... too late, right?), let's take it down to a personal level.  When we are faced with difficult moments, do we contract inward or connect outward?  That's pretty much what joy is.  It's going out instead of in.  In is selfish and victim-y.  Out is loving, soft and gentle.

It's not always comfortable.  Sometimes it seems like it may even be the death of us.  I can tell you, though, that it always feels better in the long run.

Kind of like joy, actually...always taking the long view of things. :)