In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.
– Russian author and playwright Leo Tolstoy was born on this day in 1828 (died 1910)
I need to read more Tolstoy.
I also need to take his advice.
You can’t read here and not know that I’m just perhaps the tiniest bit overbooked this fall.
No complaints. I did it. I said yes far too many times.
The choices, and the consequences, are my own.
But, I don’t want that busyness to keep me from paying attention to what’s going on around me.
The changing, and subsequent falling, of the leaves.
The temperatures that allow me to bring out the sweaters.
Football season. Fall Festivals.
Pumpkins.
And a heck of a lot of amazing theater in the Richmond area. Some of it involving me.
They’re all coming. And I don’t want to miss them.
So, sure, it’s work, work, work.
But it’s also important to take the time to look up and observe the world around you.
We have a fifteen-year-old who never knows where we are in the car because he’s never looking out the window. Yes, we are constantly chiding him about that.
If I’m not careful, I can be the same way. If I’m riding, I’m usually checking the email or Facebook. If I’m driving I’m working on lines or music. Yes, I’m keeping my eyes on the road, but I’m not really taking in the scenery.
True, multiple drives to Williamsburg for my current show and the scenery rarely changes. Interstate is Interstate.
Not my point.
The point is we all get too busy in life. We all get consumed with getting everything done.
I think we would all be just a little more efficient if we reminded ourselves every so often to stop and look around.
You might just see something new.
Like the fact that it’s now possible for you to buy me a Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Or something like that.