Doing new things in life, things beyond our comfort zone, stretch us and inspire us to grow. It may sound like a platitude, but it really is the truth. This past week, I officiated at a wedding ceremony, and last night, stood on stage in a theater full of people and read a story that I wrote. In both instances, I was terrified beforehand, but once on stage, I took a deep breath and just spoke. I was prepared, I had rehearsed. I had also lost sleep, gotten wound up, facing and refacing and working and reworking the words on the page, preparing and repreparing. When onstage, a part of me wondering, what was all that fuss about? Why was it so hard? But the preparation was a necessary part of the process. If I hadn't spent days writing and rewriting, feeling the agony, going through the ups and the downs, the breathlessness, the rehearsals with friends, the writing of nonsense to uncover the essence of it. That's the tapas, the walking on coals, the steaming ourselves in the fire, that gets us to where we need to be, that helps us grow. Ultimately stress helps us to grow, stretches us. It's the stress of the muscles ever-so-slightly tugging on our bones that allows the mineral to be deposited, that makes us stronger. On stage, I felt the high of sharing laughter, of reaching out. Thanks to yoga teacher and great friend Denise Kaufman for her excellent coaching. Thanks to Karin Gutman and everyone at SPARK for being so awesome. SPARK is a storytelling series that takes place the first Monday of every month at the very cool Powerhouse Theatre in Venice. Last night, the theme was Space, December it's the Seven Dwarves. Cool Stuff