You are valuable.

Not for what you do. For who you are.

In a world where we’ve all been given a stage, it’s easy to assume we must perform.

But deep inside, you can hear the call. It may be buried beneath the pain of burnout, but it’s there.

If you listen. If you follow.

Read me the story

I’ll read it myself

Act I

An empty stage.

There once was a person.

A PERSON enters stage left, hands clasped together, holding something.

In the beginning of time, the universe gave a gift to the person. “But know this,” they were cautioned. “It is a beautiful and yet dangerous thing.”

If they opened their hands to look at it, the results would be uncertain. It could mean death! Or life beyond dreaming. But either way, their existence could not continue as before.

Each day, the person held tightly to their gift. One particularly daring day gone past, they were on the verge of looking, but the stakes were so high.

No. It was impossible.

ANOTHER PERSON enters stage right with hands clasped together, holding something.

One day, another person appeared holding a gift they could not bring themselves to open. The two met. Recognizing themselves in each other, they spoke until there were no words left. When all the words ran out, they stood in silence.

The silence grew until it filled the earth. It pressed down and down until the two could no longer stand. Instinctively, one person unclasped a hand to catch themselves.

From a tiny light in the palm of their grip, a shock of fire lit the world. The person held tighter and tighter, waiting for the pain to stop, not wanting to lose the sudden astonishing beauty of their only gift. The tighter they held, the more the fire spread, until it consumed its host and the person was eaten by darkness.

The other person was again alone, now with a terrible knowledge and an even more terrible longing for kinship.

That moment of revelation echoed in the silence, their mind never more full of curious fascination, their hands never more tightly clutched in fear.

A PERSON is offstage left.

And yet someone else is now waiting in the wings.

You.

You, too, have been given a beautiful and dangerous gift. And you, too, have a choice. You can stay offstage and continue your life as it has been up until now. Or… you can choose to enter stage left.

What will you do?

Enter stage leftStay offstage

STAY OFFSTAGE

You have made a good and safe choice. I wish you well in your travels, my friend. Go, remember what you have seen, and take care with your beautiful and dangerous gift.

And remember, you can always change your mind.

Welcome to the stage!

enters stage left, holding tightly to something in their hands.

You enter the stage. You walk toward the other person, brought to their knees under the weight of silence.

You greet the person. The silence lifts.

Still, you both know one day the words will run out. The silence will return, heavy and sure.

At first, you both ration your words. But then, you start to notice something.

There are dreams inside the words. Dreams that include worlds you didn’t know existed. Dreams that involve hands. And a brilliant, illuminating fire.

One day, the words slow to a trickle. Silence threatens.

But you know there are only two choices now: to suffocate underneath the silence, or to open your gift and release it before it consumes you.

What will you do?

Open your gift and let it go

Suffocate with dignity

SUFFOCATE WITH DIGNITY

“What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? —it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”

—Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Maybe next time you will choose differently.

OPEN YOUR GIFT AND LET IT GO

Slowly, you open your hands.

The other person shouts to stop you, but it’s too late. The brightness of the fire is brilliant and shocking; the pain even more so. You don’t want to let go.

But you do. You release your only gift.

Instead of spreading, the fire contains itself into a shape both familiar and surprising. You have seen this shape before, and you recognize it as yours alone.

The stage lights up, and it is no longer empty. There are paths to worlds you’ve seen only in your dreams. There are rivers and trees and everywhere, color.

The shape from the fire remains in front of you for a moment.

For a split-second, you see its eyes looking at you, then it darts off into the wilderness.

Stay where you areFollow it

Hours pass as you sit, surrounded by beauty and stillness.

You keep wondering what that shape was, and where it was going.

It looked so ALIVE.

Stay where you areFollow it

You get up and start pacing in circles.

You’re not sure what to do next, but you keep wondering what that shape was, and you wonder what would happen if you followed it.

Stay where you areFollow it

You grab a stick and start playing tic tac toe with yourself in the sand.

You win every single time. Which is great.

But still your curiosity is building…what was that shape, and where was it going?

Stay where you areFollow it

You find a volleyball. You give it a name. You talk to it for hours and days and weeks until you can’t take it anymore.

But still you’re not sure…should you follow that shape?

(Hint: I really think you should follow that shape.)

Stay where you areFollow it

Okay, seriously. Are you still here? Why are you still here? You know what to do. I’ll just sit here and wait.

Follow it