in person
with John Markland
July 20th - september 7th
Many of us were unparented. Some may never have been parented, others partially parented and still some may have had parenting in some places but not others. Let’s get this straight right off the bat… this is not a blame game… this is recognition, accountability, and remedy of oneself game.
This is difficult territory for all of us because it was the establishment and foundation of our life. We want to feel deeply rooted to the ground, that the soil from which we grew was organic and not contaminated. We’d rather just keep living because how can we replace our soil? Or how can we parent ourselves and rebuild a foundation while we’re standing on it?
Nature guides us to confront resistance. Resistance whether it is weight training, a wave, a partner’s neglect, a doubt in confidence, a betrayal, a judgmental inner voice, a bully, an addiction, feels like pain. It may start as discomfort, which many of us try to avoid, but if not addressed it willeventually lead to pain. So, nature guides us to confront the pain and grow or remedy the thing causing the friction or obstacle. A river will cut through a mountain to return to the sea. A seed
will fracture concrete to find the sun.
Where we were unparented, nature will guide us to confront the friction or obstacle, so we can parent ourselves and restore what is needed for natural growth. It sounds simple in a sentence. But I am literally laughing at how it’s the hardest thing we ever have to do. The beautiful irony is this unparenting will choose our partners for us, choose are pursuits, our desires as well as our fears, might also contribute to beliefs, morals, and sense of faith. Check please!
OK. So, let’s get to it. How do we lean into nature’s guiding hand and find some lubricant for our friction. Here’s how one of mine presents when discomfort arises, I alleviate with humor… that humor alleviates but it does not remedy the root (soil) of the discomfort which will inevitably
become pain. We first seek out our emotional discomforts, triggers, and secrets. We then feel the form of resistance arresting the “free” feeling around it. Then offer the nutrients needed… which you sense almost instantaneously. It’s like dying of thirst and then you see water.
I love acting because instead of “acting it out” in our lives when others are also unconsciously “acting it out” in their lives, we get to do it with a recognition of the play. This awareness allows us to do laparoscopic surgery instead of open-heart surgery. It is done in a state of play with
the intent of discovering truth.
The scenes will all deal directly with unparenting. We will play parenting and unparenting for ourselves as well as each other and we will go where others avoid or neglect and find flow instead of resistance.