Day 287: Everyday Spontaneity

Today, Monday January 10 is the day one of my Continuing Studies class entitled:  Everyday Spontaneity:  Improvising Our Lives.  I have been teaching this class for over fifteen years.  At one point I won the prize for the CS instructor who had taught the most classes over the years: seventy plus, I think.  This class is my opportunity to put some of the ideas from my book Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up (Bell Tower, 2005) into practice. I join 20-30 adults in a room on Monday nights and afternoon to play games together that access our imaginations, tone up our reflexes, and challenge our attention to reality.  What a privilege I have to share this time with intelligent, motivated adults.  
The watercolor shown here is something I threw together today to remind us of the improv principles that guide our action when we play.  The first three phrases I got from Robert Poynton in his fine book, Everything is an Offer.   He suggests that all of improv training can be reduced to three phrases:  Let go, notice more, and use everything.   I would add, cherish it all "as a gift" as the moral frame for improvising.