Perspective, looking back

A few months ago I was introduced to Barbara Bennion.

Barbara danced for the Martha Graham Company and is currently a playwright. 

Just this past weekend, she had her newest play presented as a staged reading.

Barbara is ninety-seven.

This month I've been talking to women about the shifts they've made in their creative pursuits during different times in their lives.

I've been wondering specifically what resources they've engaged to help them navigate all manner of change, heartache and struggle.

When I asked Barbara how she’s honored her creativity for nearly a century, she wrote:

For me, being creative is who I am, so there’s no way of giving it up. I have always seen the world through the eyes of a dancer, choreographer, and now, as a playwright.

I started dancing at age 8 and found that if I worked hard, I could improve — and it was fun.

I’ve danced through triumphs and troubles, relocations, illness, deaths, divorces, and raising four children. Always doing my daily warm-ups.

At age 97, I still do those warm-ups — they’ve become a meditation.

You have to keep going.

It’s okay to compromise.

If I could no longer dance on Broadway, I could dance, choreograph, or teach in colleges, museums, daycare centers, senior centers — or open my own school.

There’s joy in giving something back to others.

When I married for the second time, dance became impractical — so I turned to playwriting.

I enjoyed thinking about how my characters spoke, moved, and made use of space.

When I first began, my writing was awful. But I kept on.

It’s okay to fail.

You may never get to perfection — but it’s fun to keep trying.

Can you hear some of yourself in Barbara's words?

I create because I have no choice, because it's fun.  I find ways to do my work even in lean times. I am willing to try new things. I am curious.  I am willing to be a beginner.  I am willing to suck and to fail.   I am willing to practice as habit.  I am willing to play with new perspectives, new tools, new people.

What resonates with you?