photo: Michelle Bates
It is easy to look at the last couple of years as a big dose of loss. Loss of family members, loss of beloved pets, loss of work and work contexts. It has also been an incredibly rich time of growth and learning. And it has, for me, been a time of assessment of what matters most.
This past July I had the opportunity of an amazing reunion with two groups of performers on an island in the Northwest where I live and create.
There are long roots betwixt and between these groups – my aerial partner is in one group and my theatrical family is in the other. Independently, each group is made up of relationships that extend back to our earliest times of making theater and music. There are literally decades of creative joy and conflict, both personal and professional, in both circles, and once a year we all gather at a festival of fairy lights, stages, art mayhem and camping at the Oregon Country Fair.
For those of you not familiar with the fair – and no, it’s not the Oregon County Fair – you might imagine it as a cross between a Grateful Dead concert and the Shire in Lord of the Rings, with 5 days of truly unpredictable beauty, fantastic art, massive freedom, and music all night long. Throw in camping cheek and jowl, no matter the weather, and stage shows daily, no matter the lack of sleep, and you can begin to get the feel.
Well, you know how it has all been cancelled. Of course you do. The weddings, the reunions, the work, the travel. All our celebrations, memorials, graduations, competitions and trips. The on-going letting go, the stoicism, the disappointment and an ever-creeping sense of exhaustion at it all; the idea that maybe the effort is not worth it – the hoping, the modifying, and the accommodation – and that maybe the insular, predictable, already complex and unending daily grind isn’t really so bad, and that it might be easier to let those events and gatherings just go on by.
Well, I’m here to tell you –It is WORTH it! After 2 years of the fair being cancelled we decided to have a mini fair ourselves. and it was so worth it.
First of all, let’s talk about the people. Being in the presence of their real, dear, complex, fun and funny selves – worth it. People from all over the country. People who managed food for 50 with a portable kitchen and hose hook up, and never once got grumpy! The creative juices cross- pollinating, and rehearsing group choreography on the fly with the predictably smart and bossy people back seat driving; the long nights sitting around a campfire singing – worth it! The communal meals after so much solitude – worth it!
The chaos of new dogs and growing kids practicing adulting in a larger family setting; the tenting and the competitive wiffle ball; basking in other people’s gifts of beauty and bringing my own to share – WORTH IT!
I had to exercise my poor atrophied muscles of gathering, and get my stamina hat out for the early morning coffee crew and the late night party, but as the saying goes “you can sleep when you’re dead”.
So, what does all of this have to do with EnJoy Productions?
In our company, below all the costumes, the skill acts, the characters and songs; underneath the fund raising and messaging, training and communication, is a profound dedication to joy and connection. Find the joy in every group, organization, conference or business, and then share the appreciation.
I say it is worth is – let us be together creatively and partake in joy together. Let us help you find your community of best practices that unleash your fun and creativity and let us all practice re-building towards connection. It’s worth it. Won’t you join us?
