The Lull After The Storm

My daughter is in an incredible play. A deeply moving exploration of the relationship between two high school swim team girls who, at first not friends despite the dark and challenging places they navigate together, by the end are connected by their experience and a newfound love for each other. They are soul sisters, bonded by blood. Even though one of them does not quite yet know that this is true.

My daughter plays the other one. The girl who grows deep in her own, true self while she grows to trust and soon love her friend. We see this at the end of the story. She is engaged in a dance of friendship that is the foundation for self growth and confidence. And of love. And of loss.

For this is a play about loss.

If you live in Southern California and you can make the time, you must make the time to see this show. An Echo Theater Company production, you can find the play at the Atwater Village Theater. See it. Seriously.

And not just because my daughter is in it and is, (yes I am her mom and so yes, somewhat biased) quite amazing. Deep in her choices. Honest in her presentation. Hard on herself and her character - she makes her character real.

So yes, come see the show because I am a proud mama and want my daughter's gift shared so others can appreciate such depth and talent. But more, because this play gives pause and makes me think. And I know will make you think, too.

I did not find myself reminiscing about my own high school years or friendships. Or challenges. Or lies and truths that unfolded when I was just a girl. That was not this kind of play for me. What it did was make me reflect on what was happening now. In my life in this time. And how the navigation of those things have a rhythm to them that this play captured.

And so the story, though of a different time with, certainly, a different set of circumstances than what is occurring in my life now, was set to a similar drumbeat. And that is what resonates so well within me.

For in this play, as in life, there are those moments of intensity that we almost feel we cannot stand. And they are always followed by the calmness. The moments in between. The place where breath can be caught.

And so it was with this story. And I found, when watching the scene that was the calm after the storm, that this was where the truth lives.  And so it is with life. 

We think that our story is in the happening. The moments where we feel the intensity. Where the colors are strongest, the sounds loud and clear, the smells settling deep in our noses so that we can taste them on our tongues. We think that this is our lives. But really these moments of stormy winds are there to carry us to the lulls in-between. 

The moments where things become clear.