Looking for Clues

Weekly wisdom to bring you home in 3 minutes, or less.

A SHORT STORY

One of the things I have discovered as an artist is how important it is to look for clues.

I believe we receive these messages all the time, if we remain open to them.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to finally witness Jessie Buckley’s performance in Hamnet, and I was reminded of a profound clue I received a decade ago as I processed the loss of my mother.

In the film, Jessie’s character is finally able to say goodbye to her own son as she witnesses her husband’s play, Hamlet, for the first time.

For myself, I had a similar experience of saying goodbye in my final performance of the title character in Hamlet. I was lucky enough to play the role a year after my Mother passed, and it was a place I could process my own grief.

That night, in Act 5, Scene 2, I had just learned that the poisoned sword from Laertes would soon bring my own demise. I turned toward the Queen, my mother, and I broke.

Suddenly, saying goodbye to my mother, to this play, to this year of grieving, came crashing through me, and my breath stopped.

It was something I needed to step through that grief, and a clue that reminded me how important it is to listen to the voices that guide us.

I share this short story now to remind myself of all the small clues that surround us, offering opportunities to move through something.

Perhaps some clue will come to your aid this week.

I hope you and I will listen to it together.

What clues might be quietly asking for my attention right now?

A POEM

“Somewhere to the East There’s a Church” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Sometimes a man rises from the supper table
and goes outside. And he keeps on going
because somewhere to the east there’s a church.
His children bless his name as if he were dead.

Another man stays at home until he dies,
stays with plates and glasses.
So then it is his children who go out
into the world, seeking the church that he forgot.

Grateful,

Michael