Category: action

action, adventure, change, courage, creativity

This just in: Be grateful for the difficult parts of life

Christa Avampato
Miracles start as difficulties
Miracles start as difficulties

Miracles start as difficulties. If everything in your life was great, you’d never change. You’d never evolve and grow. You’d never have adventures that lead you to become the best version of yourself.

Adversity is difficult and painful. It’s also what helps us find and fulfill our potential. I wish life were easier. I wish we could just evolve without being pushed to do so. But that’s not how life works. It’s not how we work as wonderfully complex and complicated human beings.

Next time life is throwing you challenges, and in my experience that happens every day!, take a deep breath and gives thanks for them. They are leading you along the path that’s meant for you. Choose to rise up, over, through, and beyond them. Choose to let them make you strong, courageous, and wise. Choose to learn from them and not be broken down by them. They’re there for a reason, and in time that reason will come to light.

action, communication, community, community service

This just in: Congressman Elijah Cummings protests for peace

Christa Avampato
Congressman Elijah Cummings in Baltimore shaking a State Trooper's hand after the riots
Congressman Elijah Cummings in Baltimore shaking a State Trooper’s hand after the riots

On the day of Freddie Gray’s funeral, Congressman Elijah Cummings led thousands of people in peaceful protests. These peaceful protesters are the people who are generating change by being the change. They’re cleaning up neighborhoods. They’re creating bridges where there are serious gaps. Their strength and courage inspires me. Love drives out hate. Light drives out darkness.

Violence and sensationalism is what sells, but it’s not what generates progress. Elijah Cummings and all the people who joined him are the hope and light of Baltimore. In time, they are the ones who will close the divides in their community. They’re already doing it. They’re the ones who need our support. We need to band together for our own good and the good of our neighbors.

action, adventure, art, career, creativity, Life, youth

This just in: Marian Cannon Schlesinger, 101, is my new idol

Christa Avampato
Marian Schlessinger
Marian Schlesinger

Marian Cannon Schlesinger is 101 years old and the ex-wife of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., historian and special advisor to President Kennedy. She’s also my new idol.

“She’s still painting, writing, watching Rachel Maddow, and reading two newspapers a day,” said The Atlantic in a recent interview with her. What struck me most about the interview was her advice to free-spirited women: “Do your thing no matter what…Early on I decided being a painter was what I wanted to be but I wanted to be a lot of other things too. I wanted to write…play tennis…have a lot of friends [and] beaus. I think I’ve been very lucky. But I think that I’ve made some of it for myself. I never gave up. I wanted it all, in other words, and I think I really almost got it all too…Just keep going.”

Thanks, Marian. I will.

action, adventure, future

This just in: Lights in the distance

Christa Avampato
Lights in the distance
Lights in the distance

There’s something so hopeful about lights in the distance. Though they may be out of focus from where we are now, we can be confident that as we continue to move forward everything will become clear.

action, choices, decision-making

This just in: What it takes to follow our purpose

Christa Avampato

A light in the distanceI’ve been thinking a lot about purpose lately. Not only of finding it, but living it. Of the hard choices and sacrifices made to pursuit it. All of the bright shiny objects that try to distract us from it. And the meaning of it when we consider all of the other priorities in our lives that may have to be reshuffled to make our purpose possible.

Realizing the full power of our purpose requires taking many small steps in a big direction. I think it might be the only way to find and pursue our purpose: one deliberate action at a time. Sometimes a decision opportunity occurs at a crossroads. Sometimes we have to make the choice to keep going through a dark time because we believe so strongly in the light ahead. We might feel like giving up, and for a time we may actually just put our purpose on hold.

The big leaps toward our goals are one in a million. They’re fun to take. Everyone loves a good sprint toward something we really want. Purpose rarely works that way. The road is often slow and steep. We have to learn a lot along the way. We get lost and turned around and confused. We fail and we try again. Those are the times we take a seat, close our eyes, and regroup. Why did you start? What did you hope to find? What have you learned? And why does it matter?

Maybe you’re in the midst of these questions. I am, too. It’s not an easy place to be. What I’m doing now is living the questions, one at a time. I’m remembering what mattered to me most when I first started my career, ironically in Washington, D.C. I’m remembering what I hoped to find all those years ago and everything I’ve learned along the way. I’ve always known why it mattered; I just needed to remind myself.

Taking this journey is like taking a trip back in time, a journey home. I feel like my life is coming full circle in a place that’s I’ve been meant to be all along. And that feels damn good. In those dark moments when I’m questioning everything (usually at 3am when I can’t sleep), that’s the idea I hold onto. I’m right where I need to be right now, and someday soon it’s all going to make perfect sense.

action, adventure, change, risk

This just in: Surviving in the In-between

Christa Avampato
Honor the space between no longer and not yet.
Honor the space between no longer and not yet.

Like me, you might be in the midst of a transition. A change in job, city, relationship, or a new realization about the world and your place in it and the people around you. We know we’re going to stop doing something and start doing something else. Right now we’re in that in-between space. And that can be unsettling. It certainly is for me.

Honor that space, that pause. It’s okay to reset and reconsider and reconfigure. It’s okay to try something on for a while and see how it feels. You can also toss it away if it doesn’t work. It’s also okay to decide to not try anything on at all. You can just be. In the In-between, you can see your past and your future and decide if or how the two could and should relate to one another. This is your show and you can play if you want to, or not.

This is a special place and a special time to not compare options to one another, but to what you really want. I know how hard it is to enjoy this time. In many ways I just want to move on and get it over with. What helps me is to remember that this isn’t permanent, that nothing is permanent. This is a rare and precious occasion, and I want to make sure to treat it as such. It’s challenging and I’m doing the best I can. I’m trying.

action, choices, decision-making, future

This just in: Can you do fewer, better things?

Christa Avampato
Shiny lights
Shiny lights

Now that I’m a few days past the 39 year mark, I’m reflecting on what this next phase of life and career look like. What I’m certain of is that it will include fewer, better things. In the past I’ve spread myself very thin over a number of projects and ideas. Now I’m trying to more heavily invest in a small number of things that will make a significant impact.

This sounds easy, though I’m finding it’s difficult to do. I have a lot of interests and hobbies. I’m intensely and endlessly curious. And I do know this: I want what I do to be meaningful. I want it to matter that I took it on and put my best into it, and that means focus.

There are a million shiny lights. The question is which shiny lights are meant for me? That’s what my 39th year is all about. After all, our lives are a reflection of our choices.

action, adventure, creativity

This just in: What’s in a name? This is what’s in mine.

Christa Avampato

christa_1A friend of mine posted this link a few days ago. You plug in your name and it tells you the hidden meaning behind it. This was mine. Ha! No wonder I need to meditate daily.

 

action, change, courage, learning

This just in: Keep perspective while learning hard lessons

Christa Avampato
Sunshine after the storm
Sunshine after the storm

Yesterday I learned some tough lessons. I didn’t cause them, but sadly I’m the only who has to deal with the fall out. Once I got over the initial shock of the reality, I had to quickly gain perspective. And I did, and I will, because of one simple belief: everything that happens has the potential to make us better if we use it with that intent. Even the things that hurt. Even the things that disappoint us and make us want to crawl under our beds to wait for sunnier skies.

The tough circumstances we face won’t resolve themselves. They won’t magically disappear if we ignore them. If anything, they’ll get worse and we won’t learn the lessons that they have to teach us. So after a short breakdown I picked up the phone, devised a plan, and took action. I don’t know if that plan will work. I’m going to give it my best shot and file away this moment as an opportunity to learn that will someday serve me well. Sometimes life beats the heck out of you, and you might be down but you’re only out if you give up. Keep learning. Keep going.

action, determination, writer, writing

This just in: Don’t let rejection stop you from writing and submitting your work

Christa Avampato
Rise!
Rise!

One of the best things about starting my career in theater is that I got used to rejection very early on in my life. Now every once in a while I get disappointed, but in a few minutes (literally) I always make the choice to channel that energy into something positive. I rise up out of the ashes of rejection, more determined than ever.

This scenario played out recently when I started to submit personal essays for publication in literary journals. One essay in particular, Help in the Ashes, was very important to me. It was about how I came full circle in my healing after my apartment building fire. With a lot of help, time, and support from my therapist and friends, I learned to be grateful for that day, to see it as my own Alive Day. It also helped me come to terms with a lot of other difficult circumstances in my past.

I submitted Help in the Ashes to about 10 publications before it was accepted. It will be published by the literary journal Earl of Plaid on April 1st in their “Blue Collar Royalty” issue. So if you’re in the midst of rejection, particularly as a writer, please don’t give up. Rejection can be hard to take, but don’t let it stop you. The world needs your voice and ideas just as much as it needs anyone else’s. Rise up and keep going.