Reinvented in Real Time

Have you ever reinvented your life in real time?

Life in Denver keeps unfolding in ways I never could have predicted. Every week seems to open a new door, a new conversation, a new challenge that asks me to stretch just a little further than I thought I could.

From the Unified Auditions alone, I’ve now received five callbacks — five roles I wouldn’t have even considered a few years ago. Each one is pushing me to think differently, to find new motivations, to expand the edges of what I believed I was capable of. The callback I’m working on now is for Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors. And let me tell you… wow. A voice, an accent, a physicality I didn’t think lived anywhere in my toolbox — and yet here they are, emerging, surprising me, delighting me.

I don’t think I would have found any of this without the work I’m doing right now at Meow Wolf in Phenomenomaly, which opens next week. Most of the cast are circus performers and professional clowns, and being in the room with them demands a level of improvisation, presence, and imaginative agility that is both exhausting and exhilarating. I’m physically and emotionally tired, yes — but mentally I feel alive.

And then there’s the other side of my life — the grounding side. My yoga classes at 12th House Yoga have become a kind of sanctuary. I was only scheduled for two classes a week, but I’ve been subbing almost daily, and it has been a joy I didn’t expect. Not just Vinyasa, but slower, more conscious practices — true Hatha — where I feel deeply present as I guide others into their bodies and breath.

My personal training clients are also keeping me inspired. Two new ones this week, each with their own goals, each offering me the privilege of helping them define and reach those goals. One client, who’s been with me for two months now (how quickly time moves when you’re focused), admitted that he feels stuck in his work. But he’s noticing changes in his body and mind — new potential, new energy — and it’s making him question what else might be possible.

We talked about how to breathe new life into his work. How the world around us can become stagnant, but we don’t have to be pulled down by it. How creativity — even small creativity — can shake loose the dust. How we can challenge our thoughts, our habits, our assumptions, and find freshness again. Not someday. Not when life gets easier. But every day, every moment, if we’re willing to play outside the box we’ve built around ourselves.

Our move to Denver wasn’t meant to challenge me. At least, that’s what I thought. Oh, my lack of foresight.

Because this move has cracked me open. It has shown me how powerful life becomes when we let ourselves be challenged — when we let ourselves be changed. I feel renewed. Re‑invented. Re‑birthed.

And now I find myself wondering about you. Not whether you’re trying hard enough — desire isn’t the issue for most of us. But whether the world around you has slowly, quietly, pulled you into stagnation.

Have you let the noise, the routine, the expectations of others slow you down? Have you forgotten that you can shift your perspective at any moment?

If the clowns and circus performers I’m learning from can teach me anything, it’s this: There is always another angle. Another choice. Another way to move. Sometimes all it takes is a tilt of the head, a breath, a willingness to look foolish for a moment.

So what might happen if you gave yourself permission to change — even a little — today?