1.3 Intersecting Trajectories.  

The Tom Paterson Theatre, affectionately known as The Tom, was an ambitious project, set to open for the 2020 theatre season. The pandemic rendered it inaccessible, and unopened for two years. It sat empty. Out of curiosity, during that time, I took a photograph from the outside to the inside, through the inside to the outside. It created a series of intersections, surreal and actual. The first dimension is the reflection on the glass, then the space between glass, including the light invading that space, then the plane of the farther glass, returning to the outside-beyond, showing the canopy that housed the audacious outdoor summer festival season. The lines are a collision of light and shadows. It is difficult to find a proper orientation to understand the photo. There is a certain serenity in the emptiness. But also, a sense of loss, and the death of a vision, toil in vain.

We can easily experience this aura of toil in vain in the work that we do. However, if our work is our calling, a kind of beckoning to places and to people is implied. This is the stewardship of our call. As a result, we must face encounters with the inevitable. This is by way of the intentional. But we can also experience encounters that are accidental by playfully venturing out into our work with a curiosity for discovery. We can then experience serendipity, a joyful surprise. However, if our work is a burden that we want to lighten, we may be inclined to do the opposite, retreat to lessen this burden or avoid the despair of failure and loss.

 Henri Nouwen, in his small and favoured book, Out of Solitude, tells the story of an old professor at the University of Notre Dame who wistfully said: “I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that interruptions were my work.” What if you practiced the idea of going out as a nomad, seeking, and expecting interruptions and disruptions as a part of your work? This might lead to the serendipitous and the serene, for yourself and for others. 

Two additional thoughts, first, have you begun to shape a specific goal for your work? A goal that is something you should do, or something you want to do? Further, is there someone you would like to share this conversation with? Someone we can add to the discussion here, online, or on the Facebook Group? They could email us (DJ) directly, or we could encounter them serendipitously instead.