And Just Like That Fall Has Arrived Monday Morning Check-In Post

How Are You??!!

We headed downtown to E. 11th Street on Saturday, the last full day of summer, to attend a celebration of Sheldon Patinkin’s life and legacy at my alma mater, Columbia College. I had not stepped into the theatre building in almost ten years when I was last there for Sheldon’s memorial and before that, it had been more than a decade.

The day was warm, bordering on hot, and the lake a brilliant blue as we drove Lake Shore Drive skirting downtown, past Navy Pier and then Buckingham Fountain for the first time since arriving back in Chicago, observing what’s new and what has remained the same. The city was filled with people having their last summer adventures and the energy was high and fun.

As always, walking into the theatre building on 11th Street was like coming home in the best of ways. I spent a concentrated amount of time there for five years. I saw former classmates and teachers and collaborators, all friends. The warmth and humor and joy and love were palpable.

We were all there because of Sheldon, and we all have carried out into the world his ideology that creating community and making the world better was where it was at. Considering he showed up to give me a personal invitation to the event a week and a half earlier, I was destined to attend. It feels like a change moment to me, and I have yet to discover what this change will bring.

Winding up at Columbia with all the wonderful people there was another change moment for me, where every door I walked up to almost forty years ago that then proceeded to close on me led me right to it. It was a lesson in following the breadcrumbs at the young age of eighteen. Even though it was not at all the vision of college I had for myself, when I walked through and into the magic that was and still is that place I knew in an instant it was the one for me.

We finished the last day of summer by heading to 18th Street in Pilsen and dining on fabulous Mexican fare at 5 Rabanitos, a place on my to-do list since returning and one we had not yet gotten to. It was perfect as it was just a few blocks south and a few more West of where we’d been. It’s also the neighborhood that saw “Prom” during my second year of college. One of the actors in Street Scene, the first mainstage show I was cast in, was dating a girl still in high school and could not go to her prom with her due to having a performance that night. So “Prom” was invented as a substitute, hosted by another cast member at her dad’s warehouse space in Pilsen, and commenced once the curtain came down.

I stepped outside on that warm spring night in 1987 for some air and ran into Sheldon hanging out with a few other theatre majors. He turned to me and offered me a hit off of the joint in his hand and my relationship with him changed instantly from one that was purely hierarchical to one that was person to person as he laughed at the look on my face. The facade I had projected upon him based largely upon my earlier experiences with people in authority cracked and I allowed myself to relax in his presence.

I awoke yesterday to a dramatic change in the weather. Fall arrived at exactly 7:44am Central Time and the climate cooperated giving us cooler temps and rain, the grey skies a welcome change from the weeks and weeks of sun and warmth. The rain was needed as Illinois is currently experiencing drought conditions from abnormally dry to moderate drought. We’re in the worst of it here in Cook County along with the rest of the Northeastern and the entire Southern parts of the state. While this drought is not as severe as what we experienced in Southern California, it is still impactful and stressful on our world, animal life, and us all.

The birds sang happily as the rains continued throughout the day. They celebrated the drops of water bringing life to this Earth as the magic of the Equinox switch was flipped and suddenly it was fall.

I am spending the morning preparing for our Equinox and Eclipses event which begins at 1:00pm Central Time today on Zoom. I am looking forward to it and to seeing you there. Registration and details are here.

I came back to edit this and add the link to get the audio recording. This event was filled with so much information, healing, and love. Get the audio recording here.
Or read the full description first and then get it here.

How are you?? Please drop me a comment below and let me know.

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