After the pandemic I was impelled to share a message of hope and encouragement, so I did a one-person-show called “Why? Yes!” My goal was to make people feel better about their lives no matter how much they’ve messed up, are messed up, or will mess up. I shared absurd stories from my own messes and revelations on how to keep going. 

 My vision is that the show could grow beyond a performance into a movement of sorts, supporting people in letting go of paralyzing questions like “Why did that happen?” or “Why didn’t this work out?” and instead saying yes to unexpected possibilities that might be around the corner. 

The show was inspired by this quote from author E.M. Forster: “By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes…”

There’s a thought that gets you out of bed each morning, even on days when you really don’t feel like it. It’s not your body that actually gets you out of bed. It’s something you tell yourself. And to me, that is spirituality. It’s the power that enables you to choose to be kind to someone even when the person is ignorant. It’s the self-control that stops you from eating cupcakes all day. It’s the motivation that drives you to do work that will contribute to the greater good. It’s innate within all of us, and increasing our awareness of it will bring us deep fulfillment and enable us to make a significant difference in the lives of others.

Don’t be scared of the word spirituality. It’s a loaded term with many connotations for different people. It reminds some people of bad experiences they’ve had with organized religion, and I am very conscious of that concern. For some, spirituality refers to yoga classes, meditation, and other particular things we do that can be very helpful in dealing with stress we face during our days.  

I don’t see spirituality as an activity that people do once or a few times a week, but rather as a way of being and relating to the world that affects our whole outlook and experience. Peace of mind, a sense of purpose, and satisfying connections with others aren’t so much luxuries as essentials to life and workplace success, and we find these things through spiritual means. They are within our reach, and we access them through our thoughts, words, and actions.  

Language is sometimes inadequate to express big ideas, but for lack of a better word, these things to me fall under the heading of spirituality.

One more thing: spirituality should be fun. 👇