If life is a stage, how will you play?

Posted on 21. Oct, 2010 by Susan Wright in Life Coaching

If life is a stage, then this week was a jumbled mess of obstacles in which I became the juggler, raging mother, and damsel in distress – none of which made for a star performance.  Contrary to a master juggler who has strong focus, timing and rhythm, I had little of that.  Raging Mother, well that’s just ugly, and damsel in distress – sorry but Rex didn’t come to the rescue, so now what? None of these roles can possibly lead to a stellar performance or sense of well-being.  So how does one play when the set design and stage aren’t quite the way you like it?

We can remember that to play is to discover and learn. I was playing a few parts  this week due to circumstances that I didn’t expect, but I know that’s not how I play all the time. Those obstacles were there to teach me something,  yeah I know sometimes we don’t  want anymore learning but that was the stage and the actors were all there playing their part for us all to learn. You see, life is like that, we are so connected that maybe what I experienced was there to teach someone else, and they were there to teach me.

Play is creative and provides options. Some of the actors in play don’t necessarily want to share, give up a role, or play another part. We can also play big and small. I suppose the raging mother was playing small, getting caught in the details and losing perspective. She was “acting-out” rather than playing the role with grace. It easy to get caught up in our roles and lose sight that maybe we can swap parts or change our costume to discover something else about who we are, once the novelty has worn off.

In this past week, there were parts of myself I got to experience and see. So now the trick is to change the role, so I can experience something else – so what part do I want to play? Even though nobody changed the set and the stage is still cluttered, I experienced enough (of those leading parts) and wouldn’t it be a joy to play another role, and thinking about it I already did a few times.

Even if we can’t see the audience, they can see us. What can we teach, what can we learn, what will they see? How we play is temporary, it can shift moment to moment. Some moments do last longer I’ll admit, but it’s only because the learning hasn’t happened yet. So folks the show must go on and while we’re on this stage together, let us play various roles to experience the richness and depth of our humanness.

If the spotlight is on you, what role will you play and will you play it well for others to learn?

Humbled by what life throws me and the beautiful people who play with me.

Susan

Tags: experience, perspective, well-being, Working Mother