Location Location Location!

I'm here for you

I always get a little shiver when I see those pictures of the galaxy
With a you are here arrow.
Without moving one iota
I shift
From being at my desk
To being in the cosmos.
It’s a miracle really.

Maybe shift isn’t the right word.
Expand?
Because I’m still at my desk.
But also in a galaxy.
But also in Hollywood.
But also in America.
But also in California.
But also in a livestream.
In a mood.
In love.
We’re all in so many places at once.

Knowing where you are
Is no small thing.
Especially knowing where you are
In your process.

Plus there’s the fact
Ok idea
That we are each living
In more than one time line.
It’s hard to wrap my brain around
So I let it wrap itself around my brain.
Maybe that truth will seep in
And it will be liberating.
Maybe this is the year I learn to communicate
With those other me’s.

If you’re looking for a memoir exercise:
Imagine one life choice you made differently
And write a piece where that alternate you
Is in conversation with the current you.

We have Severence to thank
For cracking open this door a bit.
How do we ‘reintigrate’ with these other timelines?
I’m just noticing that severe is part of severence.
Severing is severe
And why it’s difficult to repair.

That’s where we are in America.
Part of the reason this series was so compelling.
We’re severed.

Where are you?
I’m persistently helping my clients
Figure out where they are in their process.
Creative work is so filled with phases.
Sure the obvious ones.
Rough draft, first draft, polish.
Rewrite. Rewrite 2. 3. A million.
Oh Hollywood and the ever receding horizon line.
But the phases, places, don’t always have names.
So often clients can’t even say
That the problem is that they don’t know where they are.
But when I name it
There is a sigh of relief.

There are a million places.
Working on starting something new.
The tender place.
When small changes can massively alter the trajectory of the project?
Sleeping on something?
I think of it like yeast.
It’s growing on it’s own.
Becuase it always looks completely different when you take it out.
Post partum after release.
Finished with the outline which is so neat and scated to now make a mess.
Or in a messy studio that needs cleaning.
In an isolated place looking for collaborators.
In the well of despair (my manager located me there once).
Ouch.
Painful times feel like places.
And like they will never end.
I loved watching ceramacists.
It makes so visible the phases.
Big hunk of clay.
Rough shape.
Refined shape.
Polish.
Maybe you’re shifting from short form to long.
Ready to go public with something tender.
Learning to be spontaneous.
Just for the tip of the iceberg.

Knowing where you are
Can help you get where you are going.

I always drive with GPS.
I mean they’re tracking us
We may as well take the assist.
But before we had GPS.
I was doing a radio show
At a studio in a weird part of Marina Del Rey.
I once left mid-day to take a yoga class
And got lost coming back.
I called my producer to ask for help.
He kept asking me where are you?
I didn’t know.
So he couldn’t help me.
Finally I was sobbing.
Trying to describe my location.
And I guess some landmark helped him help me.
More than once even with GPS
I have called home in a panic and asked Mitch
Where am I?

It’s almost impossible
To get where you want to go
Without knowing where you are.

Unless where you want to go
Is wherever the wind blows you.
And I do hear that.
I used to think of myself
As a Type A free spirit.
Working hard
To let the wind blow me where t will.
There’s a thrill in it.
But after a while you may feel a little…
Bruised?

There’s a middle path.
Knowing where you are.
Knowing where you believe you are going.
Knowing that the way reveals itself as you walk on the way.
But it starts with knowing where you are.

Location location location.

On a personal note about location
I Google mapped
The neighborhood where I grew up.
I had that yearning to see my ancestral famiy tract home.
After looking at the picture I looked at the map.
Shockingly, the streets are circular.
I had no idea.
It explained why I could go either direction
To arrive at the same place.
I honestly was never able to pinpoint that situaton.
It was liberating knowing I didn’t just have a bad sense of direction.
And maybe it taught me
Both things are true
Which is hard to actually know in your body.
Maybe it’s why I’ve worked so hard
At finding home.
At knowing where I am.

On a cultural note.
Everyone is thinking about moving.
Or at least almost everyone.
The idea of moving has never been so not off the table.
I have no statistics.
But I know it.
And it’s partly so confounding
Because we know wherever we move it can find us there.
Oh a zillow push notification just came in. Hahahaha.

It’s like this becuase
We don’t know exactly where we are
In the biggest sense.
We are in a time - the yogis call it the Dwarpara Yuga
Where we begin to understand
That this world is more than we can see or touch.
There are energies within us
Thoughts, emotions, intentions
That are part of this reality.
That there is a web of connections.
We are all connected.
We are not severed.
The severence is in reaction to this truth.
A knee jerk no.
We are up against it.
And your work, your creative work
Is how you connect to those energies.
Help us evolve past this point.
Yes, please do the activist work you are called to.
But know that your creative work is also part of your contribution.

If you have questions
Reach out.
I’m here for you.

Infinitely Yours,
xx B

Or commenting… where are you? I’m curious.

If you are in Los Angeles come be with us at UnCabaret at El Cid Friday night! 3/28/25. Tickets here.