Yayyy, I just looked on my weather app and saw it’s going to be 71 and SUNNY in NYC today!! I am so happy to hear this, as I’ve been having Spring guilt here in LA while the tri state area goes through a freakishly cool and gloomy May.

The absence of sunshine and warmth was one reason I left New York. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it anymore, I just didn’t want to do it anymore.

My life is not one in which I get out of town much during the year — one or two vacations and/or a work related trip is what I averaged — so I knew I needed to live someplace I didn’t want to escape.

For the record, it’s still really cloudy most mornings, then the sunshine cracks through like an egg around 2 or 3p, and down pours the light. Highs are in the 60s by the beach, so it has not been very warm yet and even though I am thoroughly enjoying the crisp fresh feel, I am ready for the 70s.

I like heat.

A few of you have reached out about my ‘Doing Mothers Day’ post with thanks and to say you relate. Thank you! That post reminds me of how I used to write. Skim the surface, skim, dip in and then plunge deep. How I do write, not used to write.

I still write.

I’m in the process of working out my work life here on the west coast. In New York, all the days comprised of teaching fitness classes, writing freelance and working as an actor. The majority of my time and energy went into teaching (14 classes/week) and auditioning. I had two to three writing projects a month. Actual acting bookings were…hmm…scant (“barely sufficient or adequate”).

Not to judge. I’m just saying I auditioned a lot more than I booked, not uncommon. I used to work all the time as an actor, but it was doing mainly low or no pay gigs that COMPLETELY shaped me as a performer and rocked my soul, but no longer felt OK to accept.

Money has been a sticky subject over the years, and I have spent the last few undoing the assumptions we are taught that it is somehow bad form to ask for and receive the money I deserve. Low balling ourselves, under earning, keeping rates lower than what we are worth, doing unpaid work, only accepting clients or working for people who pay low, these are all signs of being out of alignment.

I’m grateful for the support I’ve received to help me level up.

I am grateful for all of the work I do.

Be grateful for the stepping stones and the lily pads.

I am grateful I am still teaching and sharing my freely expressed voice as an advocate and example of empowerment, strength, self love, loving others, and doing the all the fitness things that make your heart sing.

I LOVE my beats.

Today is five weeks in LA.

I am still making sacrifices to become a working actor and creative writer. I am not taking the safe, salaried and benefitted life here in LA either; I am finding enough ample, abundant work to keep me going while I audition and put words to paper.

Ah, even to write that causes me to exhale.

Don’t pull the plug on your dreams.

I believe in open doors
I’ve taken off the screen
I’m ready to let the world come inside
And touch my life

I will no longer be defined by
What someone else believes that I am
Now that I have dropped the weight
It’s time to elevate

Lift your eyes
Spread your wings
Prepare to fly
This is the moment
Of your life
Go ahead and fly

I believe in open doors
I’m outside of the box
What did not demolish me
Simply polished me
Now the clearer I can see

I know where I wanna go
~Soulbird Rise by Indie Arie (thanks, Caroline!)