Friday, July 26, 2013
This afternoon, I was at Kinko’s making copies for an event. There was an older man next to me struggling with his copier, so I helped him out. I saw he was copying NY Times clippings about actors from the 40’s/50’s. I asked if he was an actor – he said yes. I mentioned to him that I am working on a play about The Group Theatre. He said “I knew all of them!” and instantly offered to talk with me about these amazing people (Lee Strasberg, Elia Kazan, Stella Adler, Harold Clurman). The man was Martin Landau.
He showed me a handsome photo of himself sitting at a drafting table in the late 1940’s, when he was working as a sketch artist for a newspaper. He said that he knew he had to give up sketching, just as he was becoming successful at it, if he was ever going to fulfill his dream of being an actor. He followed his instincts with faith and it worked out very well.
Part of spiritual mastery is letting go of things that you are good at. Part of spiritual mastery is letting go of the 2×4 to the head and just accepting guidance when it first comes, rather than negotiating with God or your ego. Sometimes, the mastery step is letting go of your plan and just saying “yes”.
What I get out of this experience is the Universe directing my attention to my creativity and encouraging me to do what I love right now, even as I am focused on allowing my spiritual work to reach many more people. This is interrupting the thought/belief I have of “I’ll do this first, and then I’ll do that.” There is room for both now and they feed each other.
The underlying belief here is that we can’t have it all. We can when we allow ourselves to. There is no “other shoe” that is going to drop. We can receive and allow with confidence.
About a half hour after I left the copy store, I remembered that a week ago while I was waking up I had a vision of Martin Landau on the beach by the water with his hands up in the air. As I woke up, I had the conscious thought of “He knew the people in The Group and he lives in LA. I should talk to him.” I then forgot about it.
This encounter has left me feeling giddy, focused and loved. I am deeply grateful for this reminder of what is available and to let go of self imposed limits.