Yesterday is Over

This seems fitting. Fitting if you think the election signals and ending of one era and a beginning of another era. Fitting, too, if you are a performer who wants to be living in the “now” at each given moment.

Yesterday is over.

It is a fact of life that what is old dies to make way for what is new. Endings are often painful -- we mourn the death of a relationship, we regret leaving a familiar neighborhood, we don't like to say good-bye.


Endings, though, give us the chance to begin again. A new friend comes in to fill the empty space left when an old friend moves away. A new school, a new job, a new season of the year -- these are fresh starts that evolve from what has gone before.

We need not fear the inevitable endings in our lives. Daily, we are renewed. Our bodies produce new cells continually. When we are going through an ending, we may not be able to see the new beginning that lies beyond, but we can trust it will be there for us when we are ready. We can welcome the new opportunities that each day brings and consider them gifts that might guide us through each end and each beginning.

“I will let yesterday end so that today can begin.”

This is a good way to be each day, even if what has ended and what is beginning it is not obvious or easy to find. Each moment is new isn’t it? This is something I teach my voice and acting students, to the extent that I can. I think this has a lot to do with the right kind of attitude we need as performers. Each performance is unique. When the performance is over it is gone and the next performance is a new unique performance. When we’re in a show and the show is over, we sometimes don’t like to say good-bye. To live in the moment we need to let go of the past and let go of our expectations of the future so as to truly be in the moment.