Is it today, yesterday, or what may come to be?

Is it the sum of these things or greater?

There’s been a lot of talk about reclaiming narratives, while others talk about rewriting and erasing history.

Can a lie become the truth if it’s told enough times and enough people believe it?

Legacy.

What will they say about me?

We all become one blink in the current of space and time.

What is one life, one moment, one second?

It has to be connection.

We don’t take any of it with us, not our names, not our stories, not our good or bad deeds .

I hope it can be kindness and love.

We forgot who we are.

I hope my legacy can help us all remember.

I hope my legacy is love.Not mine, ours.

We can only see out legacy in the reflection of others.

So let’s show each other love, so that we can see the best of ourselves.

It’s a feeling.

Spinning wheels.

Slow starts.

Starts and stalls.

That’s how I’ve been feeling lately.

Super grateful about everything that happened over the past year, and excited about things on the horizon. Plenty on the plate currently, but asking things like, what next? What now?

Breathe.

So, I read back on some of the first 100 entries, there are a few that stood out, but there are a number that… well it’s an experiment, they can’t all be winners. The point is the ones that did wouldn’t have existed if I didn’t keep writing, so the answer is to write more. Implement morning pages.

Since streaks work well for me, I’m gonna commit to 10 days of practicing a morning routine, starting tomorrow.

I didn’t get in an accident today.

Things just came and went really fast, so I’m finding my bearings.

Gratitude.

I read somewhere that Einstein said thank you hundreds of times a day, so I looked it up. It goes deeper than that. What he said was essentially that he realized the position he found himself in would not be possible without the contributions of countless people living and dead, and that he reminded himself of that fact at least a hundred times a day. He did that to remind himself of the responsibility he had to honor their contribution, by working to contribute to the world himself.

Lately I’ve been studying a bit of stoicism. It’s basically a practical guide to living a meaningful life, by gaining perspective that our lives are but a drop of water in the endless expanse of space and time. And if there is an end to the universe, that’s probably also just a part of a greater mystery.

So don’t sweat the small things, but realize there’s value in even the tiniest speck.

I’m just one speck, but I contain multitudes, and we are valuable. I am grateful to be here. And you, reader, you’re a valuable speck containing multitudes too, and I’m grateful to be on this journey of life and existence with you.

Flat tires.

Brotherly visits.

Poison Ivy and allergies.

Highs, lows, and everything in between.

I fell off of writing for a few days after a very long but satisfying day on the remote set of King’s Blade, my brother and his lovely girlfriend arrived at our place between the time I left in the morning, and the time I returned early in the twilight of the next day after the shoot. And I spent some quality time with family, as we all prepare for the new addition on the way.

Rest was needed, a break was needed. But now it’s time to return to the work, to build the practice.

Party on… and then get back to good work.

So yesterday we shot the scenes that I was in for the pilot of King’s Blade, as well as all the other scenes for that location. It was an epic day, in the best way.

I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled musings tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I’m shooting my scene for King’s Blade!!!

…so I’m going to sleep now… good night.

Rest is reparations.

Quicksand.

Oh damn.

The harder you struggle,

The more it pulls you under the land.

The trick is to relax.

Sometimes you gotta ride the rapids,

Don’t fight the flow.

When there’s solid ground under your feet,

You’ll know which way to go.

Tomorrow it begins again when I hear that rooster crow.

Morning routine.

Productivity planner.

Stretches.

Meditation.

Gratitude lists.

Schedule.

Chess.

Today was what it is.

Tomorrow it begins again.

Opinions.

Everybody’s got them, but they’re not all the same. So which ones do we listen to?

To thine own self be true.

Can’t please everybody, so there’s no point in trying to.

But we can get clear about what we want to say,

And say it the best way we can.

TD Jakes has a new book out that I’m reading called,

“Don’t Drop The Mic.”

Do you ever feel like you’re holding back?

How do we release the valve and keep it open?

I feel it it spurts and starts.

It’s time to let it flow.

How can I ever make it?

Come so far.

Burn out before I get there

You’re a shooting star.

Uncharted course they haven’t been where you are.

Meet your destiny our drown it out at the bar.

Behind those bars, too many kin-folk be.

If you diminish some humanity ain’t free.

We are so much more than what we right now see

No limits in sight only possibility.

Don’t be afraid to take flight,

Flying free is your birth right,

The Sun will rise on this dark night,

With knowledge you gain insight.

I know understand why the cage bird sings,

I’m gonna teach you how to fly even if they clip your wings.

A few years ago I was writing a play called “Bushwick Driver for Hire.”

Based on a short period of time when I was driving for Uber, in between managing a bar and… well now… whatever this is.

I wrote about 40-50 pages, and then ended up moving on to other things, thinking maybe I’d come back to it. Of the three plays I wrote this year, that wasn’t one of them.

Tonight I’m going to see a play developed by Bushwick based muti-hyphenate Modesto Flako Jimenez, which is an immersive piece called TAXILANDIA in which my wife and I will ride in his car. Jimenez has 9 years of experience to my off and on year and a half, so I very much look forward to experiencing this. I’ve also crossed paths with Flako through Oye Group, his Bushwick based theatre company.

Tickets for this production co produced by Oye, The Bushwick Starr, New York Theatre Workshop and The Tank were sold by lottery, and I was lucky enough to win one of the drawings. So buckle up, I look forward to sharing my experience tomorrow.

Brain games.

Head tricks.

Mind exploration.

Mental acrobatics.

Attitude shift.

Meditation.

And still sometimes, the fog comes.

So we soldier on.

But we don’t have to do it alone without guidance.

But who will be our guides.

I once heard, beware the Buddha in the road.

I don’t think that means don’t believe in the guides that appear on our path.

Maybe just beware thinking that the one is the only one.

Let us remember our parents, our friends, our lovers, our heartbreaks,

Lessons all.

There will be manny guides on the road,

Some of them maybe gremlins.

Some may be storms.

Some come as fog.

But light still exists within the fog,

And within the darkest night.

Things will clear up.

See you from the view on the other side.

It’s quiet.

It’s been loud in here lately, but right now it’s quiet and calm.

A brief respite from the storm.

Outside I just heard a mighty battle of domesticated wolves.

I hope it was just verbal, and that none of them were harmed.

In this place where I live, Bushwick, land of the Lenape, there used to be a pack of wild dogs that made people only get out of one side of the Morgan Ave station, because this one street belonged to the wolves.

Around the corner from where I am there was a pretty high-profile mob hit 50 years ago.

Not long before I moved here the streets were on fire.

Every now and then I see a burned out car and I can’t help but think, “just like the good old days. The Wild days of yesteryear.”

It’s quiet right now.

Is a storm coming?

Or are we in the eye of it?

“Yes we can.”

“I think I can, I think I can.” Who is “I” talking to?

We don’t come into this world alone,

We don’t leave it alone either,

We just lose sight of the connection.

Us vs Them is really us vs us, me against myself.

I can’t figure it out all by myself.

I can learn by reading books that other people wrote,

Learning the stories of those who came before, and my contemporaries.

I’m striving to find a new approach.

A friend of mine told me that every aspect of health takes a whole team.

Health is real wealth.

Who’s on your team?

I hope you can’t count me among them,

Cheering you on, wishing more for you.

Elevate.

You,

Who?

A great playwright who I had the honor of being an a playwriting residency with recently, Ben Holbrook, wrote a play that’s been on my mind for the past couple of nights.

I don’t want to give it away, because it’s a beautiful piece, and I can’t wait for the world to see it.

I’ll just say, take time for yourself, to really connect with your center. There are a lot of things out there that can pull you off your center. The jury is out on whether we control the cosmic narrative for ourselves, but we should at the very least pay attention to the story that we are telling ourselves and the world. The story of us. The narrative of our life

If we don’t control the narrative, who does? Are we happy with the current narrative? If we can change anything about it, what would that be? By thinking new thoughts, we create new personal realities.

Or maybe I’m just telling stories again.