Traveling Heavy
is not necessarily a bad thing.
I'm getting LP and myself ready to hit the road to visit family on the East Coast and getting in my usual pre-flight anxiety twist-up. Part of me gets focused on "oh I'm bringing too much stuff" and then worried that I'm not bringing the right stuff. And so on and so on and so on.
I was thinking that I had traveled light pre-LP but that isn't true. I don't like to fly so I always brought as many distractions (books, crossword puzzles, knitting, writing, music) as possible.
Then I realized how to let go of the anxiety...traveling with all this stuff is for comfort. As much as LP needs her best buds, Lambda & BunBun, to come along, I need to know that I'm prepared for...well, for almost anything.
It reminded me of being a new improvisor and wanting to have a set list for a show. I wanted to know what games we would play (or at least might play) and to have reviewed the rules and so on. Then I got restless with so much "knowing" and wanting more challenge. So I started doing shows without set lists...and then I started doing longform improv. This longform creating of up to 2 hour shows on the spot still feels delicious and exciting. In Un-Scripted we usually have a frame we've agreed upon (a genre, like Shakespeare or Romantic Comedy) and we rehearse to come to agreement about what that genre means but then....in the show it is so open and free to discover all the things can happen. I went from needing the illusion of being prepared to anything to feeling prepared to improvise.
It reminded me of being a new parent and anxiously reading and seeking advice (or accepting advice thrust upon us!). And then (finally) came a point of balance of finding the place that brought together useful information (like what is developmentally appropriate) with being in the moment of being a parent and figuring out what works for our family. I went from needing to find the "right" way to needing to find our way.
So I'm traveling heavy today....although a little lighter than in the past. The first time I took a plane trip with LP I brought 20+diapers, today I only have 8.
I'm getting LP and myself ready to hit the road to visit family on the East Coast and getting in my usual pre-flight anxiety twist-up. Part of me gets focused on "oh I'm bringing too much stuff" and then worried that I'm not bringing the right stuff. And so on and so on and so on.
I was thinking that I had traveled light pre-LP but that isn't true. I don't like to fly so I always brought as many distractions (books, crossword puzzles, knitting, writing, music) as possible.
Then I realized how to let go of the anxiety...traveling with all this stuff is for comfort. As much as LP needs her best buds, Lambda & BunBun, to come along, I need to know that I'm prepared for...well, for almost anything.
It reminded me of being a new improvisor and wanting to have a set list for a show. I wanted to know what games we would play (or at least might play) and to have reviewed the rules and so on. Then I got restless with so much "knowing" and wanting more challenge. So I started doing shows without set lists...and then I started doing longform improv. This longform creating of up to 2 hour shows on the spot still feels delicious and exciting. In Un-Scripted we usually have a frame we've agreed upon (a genre, like Shakespeare or Romantic Comedy) and we rehearse to come to agreement about what that genre means but then....in the show it is so open and free to discover all the things can happen. I went from needing the illusion of being prepared to anything to feeling prepared to improvise.
It reminded me of being a new parent and anxiously reading and seeking advice (or accepting advice thrust upon us!). And then (finally) came a point of balance of finding the place that brought together useful information (like what is developmentally appropriate) with being in the moment of being a parent and figuring out what works for our family. I went from needing to find the "right" way to needing to find our way.
So I'm traveling heavy today....although a little lighter than in the past. The first time I took a plane trip with LP I brought 20+diapers, today I only have 8.
Labels: improv, improv parenting, musings
posted by Susan at
7:19 AM
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