Histamines and Hormones

Camassia Area, West Linn, OR

A Big Life:  Encouraging Words for Those in the Entertainment Industry –

Spring in Portland is a cheerful, vividly green pitter-patter time. Frogs are noisy, the snakes are out and even the spiders are starting to unwind from the giant rhododendrons. There is no pale pink subtle budding in the rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. The plants loom and the slugs underfoot are large, lush and liquid.

Some say spring is an awakening time, a time for new projects. After months of acting and directing, I hunger to get back to the writing.  I love to work outside, but putting my chair out on the back deck has resulted in nothing but a trip back inside for a blanket–I’m always freezing in spring. The cold damp really gets to me.  Summer is my element…I love heat.  Also, all week I have been filled with anxiety for no reason.

April wisteria in West Linn

Or is there one?

When you’re an artist with an erratic schedule, it’s easy to attribute uneasiness to psychological reasons.  However, it’s important also to examine the physical. Too often we ask ourselves, “What’s wrong with me?” when we feel sad or worried. We mourn that we will never act again, never write again, or never have an art project of any quality.  So I have to remind myself that all week I have been nursing a slight cold. What’s more, I have a nasty case of drizzling hormones. But the body is cyclical and these emotions will pass.

Summer will come.

Painter in the Camassia Area

I dream of it as I sit outside shivering in the dying April sunlight with my toes curled up in a heated throw (I’m a great believer in extension cords). As I listen to the raucous Oregon frogs drown out the sound of the distant highway, I look forward to the ecstasy of writing again…and heat!