Yes, And...

I recently blogged here about using improv with my middle schoolers.  We finished the year with our practice of improv. (I even had a class ask to perform improv on the last day of school!) In our study of improv, we learned that the most important rule of improv is "Yes, and..." That means that as a performer, you must always agree with your partner, otherwise, the scene stops cold. The "and" means that each performer needs to add something new to the scene. As the days and weeks progressed, I saw improvement in the students following these rules. Perhaps that's why the word YES has been floating around in my head lately. I find myself writing about it and reflecting on it and wondering about the power of yes. As with anything in life, when our attention is on something, it seems to suddenly appear everywhere...

With summer approaching, and the word YES prominent in my consciousness, I've made a decision. This is going to be the summer of YES, or more specifically, my summer of YES, AND. I can act from fear...sometimes I resist instead of risk and life is that much duller because of it. I've decided. I'm going to say YES more. I read "Year of Yes" by Shonda Rhimes and it's one of those books that's stayed with me. The lessons she learned and the way she allowed fear to stop her...I kept saying, "Me too." Here it is. I'm going to try new things. I'm going to make decisions from YES instead of fear...even when I don't feel like it. I'm going to invite more and ask more and risk more (that's the AND part of it.) I'm going to live outside of my comfort zone and see what that's like. I invite you to try it. Say YES to summer, to life!

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space for sharing our celebrations. Please join us and share your own!