Knowing that the number one rule in improv (perhaps the only) is to always continue the conversation with “yes, and…” —  and thinking that life is really one big improvisation — I try to do the same in my daily practices. 

I got up early this morning to make the baguettes. The sticky dough questions my every move, and yes, I continue. My tiny spatula is barely a match for the fluidity. It’s like trying to herd cats or gather water in the palm of your hand. But the scent of bread baking is priceless. The impossible cut straight from the oven melts the butter, and beds the lavender honey, and there really is no better way to begin the day. 

It feels good to begin in all that agreement. I will ride it to my sketchbook — the current sketchbook whose only rule is “Bird, and…” Every page must contain a bird. It started from the need to lighten the moment. To feel barely more than air. To fly. Thus, the birds, and… whatever I wanted to paint with them. Be it ukulele, purse, or human, it always continues with the bird, and…

The two most recent humans in the book, although pages apart, seem to belong together. And how telling of our world, I suppose. This “pages apart.” But I’m encouraged by the ease of paper turning…the smell of fresh bread, the taste of lavender honey… So as the sun questions, “Will we rise to the moment?” — I can only answer, YES!