Your Joy Is VALUABLE.

Nerissa Street will show you why.

Honestly…

It’s the hardest thing for me to be honest when I’m in pain. Pain makes you vulnerable. A feeling of pain is connected very deeply to a sense of powerlessness, because in mist cases, all you can do is surrender. If you feel the pain is bigger than you, you will resist it– and like…
Read more

Adventures at Hermitage: Day 3

People from all walks of life are walking up and down the beach with these metal nets, digging up the sand, sifting through it and dumping it back on the beach. I walk up to one of them. “What are you looking for?” I ask. “Shark teeth,” he answers. “They’re here!” Apparently, shark teeth are…
Read more

The body

Why We Don’t Heal

Healing is physical, but it’s also emotional and spiritual. This is an excerpt from an upcoming work I’m writing. I’m especially grateful to the folks at Hermitage Artist Retreat for giving me uninterrupted time to write. Your questions and comments are appreciated. — The most pervasive block to healing is guilt. A secondary block is…
Read more

The Only Voice That Matters

Suzan McDowell suggested that I blog on the word cacophony. — For the last five months prior to my posting this article, I’ve worked with my 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes of elementary Theatre students as well as students in music and dance to mount Alice@Wonderland, a 21st century retelling of the classic Lewis…
Read more

What’s Going On Here?

On Saturday, May 30, 2015, Be Your Own Answer will partner with 9 creative professionals to bring a new type of experience to South Florida culture. This official Broward 100 art exhibition happens as part of the 100-year celebration of Broward County, but this exhibition is different from others- it needs your presence. Why? The…
Read more

3 Ways to Build Your Team’s Spirit

This wordblog is for Sher Lynn, who asked for me to blog on morale. — Morale can be a complex idea for any group of people working together. By definition, morale is “the degree of confidence and cheerfulness in the face of opposition; the spirit of optimism.” Are the people hopeful? Any leader worth his salt worries…
Read more

The Thing

Real. A wordblog requested by Melissa Dunn — They say at some point, you’ve got to call a thing a thing. The origin of the word “real” is Old Latin re- which meant thing, and alis,  meaning like, similar to. Things that are real are like a “thing.” So let’s go a bit deeper. What’s…
Read more

The Ties that Blind

For David I Muir, photographer extraordinaire, who asked for a word on connection. — The word connection is derived from an Old Latin word meaning “link” or “tie.” In fact, con means “with” in Spanish, and nexus is a word that is related linguistically to it. Connection has, of course, another meaning. Internet! Yes! the…
Read more

Your Origin Story

Wordblog for Cristyle on Authenticity

It’s Really Terrifying– But I Did It

Today, I said no to something that was reeeallly close to the things I want to do in my life. Close. But not quite. I mean, it was a sliver away. But it wasn’t really the thing that I wanted to be identified with and stand for in our world. It was close, but my…
Read more