Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mary. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Mary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

It would be impossible for me to choose the single kindest thing that anyone has done for me from among my family and close friends. They have all shown me a lifetime of unconditional love and kindness. So I am choosing to share an experience of kindness that was bestowed upon me by a stranger. A stranger who changed my life.
Shortly after my husband’s death I went to Los Angeles to close down our small apartment that we had rented in advance of looking for a house to buy. I was in a state of deep grief with tears falling down my face even when I wasn’t actively crying. I went to the Beverly Center Mall to run an errand. After getting off the escalator I found myself in front of a pet store that I had hardly noticed before. For some reason I stopped to look at the animals on display in the window. I was never a person who wanted a pet, even as a child, so this was an anomaly. There in the window, curled up in its food bowl, was the tiniest dog I had ever seen. It looked so sick and miserable that I was taken aback. I felt compelled to go inside to confront the clerk about the condition of this poor little creature. He told me the little dog was merely tired and not sick. I was not convinced or reassured by his excuses so I asked for the dog to be taken from his food bowl in the window and shown to me. It was a male, teacup poodle. As this thin, weak little dog was put in my arms it clung to me, shaking and terrified. I held him close as tears ran down my face. I was shaking too. At that moment a stranger entered the shop. She noticed the two of us right away and stopped to look at us with concern. Instead of ignoring us and going about her business she stood and studied us. She then approached me calmly, looked compassionately into my eyes and asked, “Is that your dog?” I told her how I had seen the dog in the window and was very worried about its well-being. She stood by my side nodding silently showing me approval, understanding and support. As she stood next to me I became calm. I felt embraced by her warm, protective energy. We stood there not needing to talk for a few minutes. She was silently healing me with the companionship of her loving spirit. She petted the dog gently as it clung to me. She was willing to stand with us for as long as we needed. After a while she looked into my eyes and said gently, “This is your dog. This dog has chosen you. That’s how it works. Animals choose us, and this dog has chosen you”. I believed her. A feeling of relief and pure love flooded my senses. She was right. I couldn’t leave this sick little dog behind. He needed me and I needed him. I took a deep breath and as I exhaled I began to feel like a different person. My focus returned and I could feel a shift in my body from being shut down to being active again. She waited while I took a few more deep breaths. I looked at her and smiled. We didn’t say much. Our communication was one of silent recognition and trust. Knowing that things were going to be all right now, she went about her business and left the store. I purchased the dog with the agreement that the pet shop pay all vet bills if the dog was sick. I felt so happy walking out of the shop with my new little companion. Once I got my dog home he pranced about my apartment like a happy little angel. I named him Gwydion: King Arthur’s name as a child. I tried to make him a bed on the floor next to my bed but he would only accept sleeping next to me. The next day the vet told me that he had an eye infection, an ear infection, a lung infection and worms. He might have died if I hadn’t of saved him. I nursed him back to health and that little dog became one of the great loves of my life. We were constant companions. Gwydion brought an abundance of joy, love, fun and purpose into my life when I was inconsolable and estranged from the human race. I loved him with all my heart, and he loved me. I still thank that stranger every day for caring enough to approach me. Her kindness penetrated my pain and saved me by showing me a way to heal while I healed my beautiful little Gwydion. She could have been repulsed at the sight of a weeping woman with a tiny sick dog clinging to her. Her reaction could of have been that of avoidance. But she chose to give of herself, her time and her wisdom to a stranger and a tiny animal in emotional distress. Her kind intervention changed my life forever. We were strangers. We didn’t even exchanged names. But I knew who she was. She was a famous movie star named Dyan Cannon. But it didn’t matter. Our interaction had nothing to do with anything but her unconditional kindness.

Mary, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have spent my whole life in the creative arts. I am often described as a “multi-hyphenate” artist because I have worked in many different disciplines and capacities. I began my professional career as a dancer, then became a singer and an actress, and then a director and acting coach. I am currently a novelist. My debut novel, THE RAIN SAID ‘SAMSARA’, was published by Lexographic Press in October of this year on thousands of online platforms in the USA and overseas. I am very proud of this accomplishment because when I began I didn’t know how to type or work on a computer!
I had moved to LA from Chicago to pursue my acting career. I was fortunate in being cast in the feature film FOUR COUSINS AND A CHRISTMAS, the short film PATRICK, and one episode of KOMBUCHA CURE before the pandemic hit and the industry came to a standstill. Suddenly I was sequestered away in my apartment with nothing to do. I had always had many ideas brewing on the backburner of my mind that I longed to capture in writing. But I had no time to devote to this endeavor. And so I decided that this otherwise horrible time of isolation could be reimagined into an opportunity for me to write.
I sat down and started writing long hand on yellow tablets: scribbling as fast as I could, attempting to apprehend the fleeting ideas and inspirations that first present themselves as abstract thoughts, connected to a thrilling bigger picture without being manifested in the conscious mind yet. To capture these energy fields that exist outside of and beyond language, then to encode them into the written word was a fascinating process. To know that these ideas were filtering through and cross referencing the entirety of my being, unique to my life’s experiences, in order to live as words on paper was a humbling and transcendent experience.
Scribbling became paragraphs and paragraphs became chapters. The time had come for me to learn how to navigate my computer and type. The bliss of the creative work had to be balanced with the skill of transferring that work to the printed word so that it may be shared. The intoxication of the creative process belonged to me, but the artifact of that process must be released into the world to be shared. Creativity is a symbiotic relationship.
I downloaded the word app and figured out how to use it. I had to search for every letter on the keyboard in order to type at first. It was too slow going so I decided to type quickly and then go back to decipher what I was attempting to type later. My first drafts were a mess. I would often hit the wrong button and delete passages. Sometimes I wouldn’t “save” my work correctly and lose everything I had accomplished. It was frustrating and at times unbearable. But I learned to be patient and not give up. Eventually I got better. I could actually type, think and chase down inspirations all at the same time. I would type draft after draft, writing for hours. Sometimes I would work all night. It was as if I was being dictated to by a higher power, in a space where there was no measure of time. It was enthralling. In the two years of the shut down I completed three screenplays and my novel. I was elated. I thought I was finished. Then I was told that my worked had to be formatted in a certain way in order for the publishers and producers to even look at it. I learned how to use the correct font and spacing, when to capitalize words and what punctuation was needed. I reread my work hundreds of times making corrections until my manuscripts were of professional quality. Then I had to abbreviate my work to create summaries, log lines and tag lines to approach publishers and producers with. I’d like to share the log line for my book, an historical romance novel with you:
After a day of antiquing in the boondocks of Wisconsin, Marissa finds herself lost on a deserted dirt road driving through a raging storm. As she navigates the dangerous journey home her senses are heightened. In the ambient sound of the rain a word is formed. The rain said “Samsara”. Marissa knows this word. It means reincarnation and the resolution of karma. Memories imprinted upon her soul rise into her conscious mind. They reveal lifetimes, scanning three centuries, spent with Michael, the man she loves. A man she first met three hundred years ago.
Using this log line, summaries and tag lines, I wrote query letters searching for a publisher. By the grace of God I found an awesome publisher and my novel, THE RAIN SAID ‘SAMSARA’, is now out in the world on thousands of online platforms. ”Wherever books are sold”, as the saying goes. I couldn’t be prouder of my work. I have heard it said that the written word is an invitation into the consciousness of the author. I humbly invite you to join me for a thrilling flight of the imagination. I am now working on getting my screenplays produced.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have had to pivot many times in my life. I had immersed myself in pursuing my career at a young age. I became a professional dancer at sixteen and spent all my time taking singing and dancing lessons. But when I was nineteen and studying opera at Northwestern University I met a young man who swept me off my feet and into the zeitgeist of the seventies. I pivoted into all kinds of adventures, hitch-hiking through the USA, Mexico and South America, living on a commune in the Rocky Mountains and teaching yoga for Swami Satchitananda before I pivoted again back into my life in the theater. While once again studying opera and dancing I met Ted Liss, a legendary acting coach and voice over artist who became my husband. I spent fifteen incredible years with him focused on our mutual path of the theater. After fifteen years my beloved husband died of a heart attack. My whole life changed. This was not just a pivot, it was a devastating earthquake accompanied by an explosion that turned me into a cloud of dust that took a decade to form into a coherent human being again. There is a loss of memory that comes with trauma. Looking back I would say that in my case it was because remembering what I had lost would have been so painful that it would have destroyed me. It was like an avalanche of grief that I had to fend off with absolute silence. Now, with my husband gone, I had to close our actors workshop and get a regular job to pay the bills. Once again I had to pivot. I used my skills from the theater to reinvent myself as a makeup artist in department stores. I could no longer afford a mortgage so I had to sell our condo and rent an apartment. I sold our car and took the bus or subway. I had to find my way, one step at a time, in a world that I no longer recognized.
With this experience came the realization that the belief system of my youth was changing. I learned that the idealism I had always embraced does not impart invincibility. Sometimes you can do everything right and things go horribly wrong. It is admirable to have a sense of responsibility and take control of situations with the best of intentions, but there are things that are beyond your control or comprehension. When they happen they are not your fault. They happen to you along with everyone else. They are a part of life. They bring with them new lessons of empathy and kindness. They show you the depth of your love and the resilience of you spirit. Although emotionally painful, this journey can also be sacred as it brings you to a new understanding of yourself, others and life itself.
I don’t think that anyone ever gets over a devastating loss but you do learn to live with it. After a while, as inconceivable as it may seem, you begin to change. You are no longer the same person and you have a new way of life. I began to feel happy again. I started to remember who I was and what I loved to do. I reached out to actors I knew from the past who now had their own successful acting workshops. I pivoted to my niche skills that could be useful to them. I offered Shakespeare Seminars and Voice and Diction classes. And thankfully they welcomed me into their workshops where I once again was steeped in the enthusiasm and open heartedness of students and actors who want nothing more than to enter into, and be immersed in, the creative process of acting. I also directed film, plays and radio programs during this time. I was still in a state of grief but I was coping with it now and moving forward. After a while my enthusiasm for acting came back full force and I decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue my career. I was very lucky to be cast in a feature film, a short film and an episode of a series within the first half year. Things were going very well until the Covid Pandemic hit. Like everyone else, I found myself quarantined with no acting prospects in the foreseeable future. And that is when I used the time to pivot and become a writer!
I would whole heartedly recommend the book THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran. This book is about the sacred nature of grief. It turned my whole experience around when I thought I couldn’t go on. It also made me incredibly grateful that there are people on earth who document their spiritual insights hoping to help other people in their darkest hours, as this book did for me. It made me want to be a writer. I would also recommend a book called DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN. It will provide you with fascinating insights into how your brain works and how to access the suppressed right side of your brain which controls the creative process in a left-brain dominant society. I would highly recommend reading aloud the works of Shakespeare. The invitation into the consciousness of Shakespeare, through his written words, will resonate in your nervous system, elevate your consciousness and change you for the better. All of my students started out thinking that Shakespeare was out of reach and too complicated to learn, but they all ended up amazed at how much they loved it and how it enriched them as actors and as people.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The resources that are now available to not only artists, but to everyone who owns a phone, are truly remarkable. Full length feature films can be shot on an iPhone and edited on downloadable software programs. Now that I have learned how to navigate it, my computer and the Word App have given me the freedom to create professional manuscripts independently, while prompting me to spelling and punctuation mistakes along with converting my work into different formats and so many other helpful functions. YouTube has provided me with tutorials on everything from repairing my dishwasher and remote control to learning how to copy and paste on my computer, not to mention a library of my favorite old films! Artificial Intelligence apps have provided me with a virtual staff who provided me with a marketing plan for my projects while being enthusiastic, agreeable and completely cooperative. They also provide expertise on subjects instantly that would take a long time to search out. The ability for anyone to create videos and shows to post on TicTok, Instagram and Facebook is liberating, for all people have the right to create and share, not just movie stars and the elite. It is a human need providing a path to unification of the body, mind, emotions and spirit. Seeing the level of talent that ordinary people possess, which often exceeds what has been presented to the public as professional, raises the standards of what was becoming a dumbed down world of entertainment. I see incredibly talented people performing on these sites daily fueled by the pure love of their craft and their desire for connection. It is electrifying! I have been healed by the videos of babies laughing and saying their first words, along with the videos of dogs, cats and other pets showing how loving and aware they can be. I would have been making videos non-stop if these opportunities had been available to me when I was young. I am new to this world and my introduction to it came out of necessity, because I wanted to write. I was actually afraid of my computer at first. I do wish I had discovered it sooner but I am participating in it now. I pray that the online world will not replace human interaction but enhance it. I pray that it will be regulated so that it cannot be used to harm or negatively effect the young and vulnerable, or the population at large. We live in transformative times. Let’s all participate in a positive way to utilize these new resources in a life enhancing way. It could lead to prosperity, the sharing of resources and ultimately to peace on earth.

Contact Info:

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Image Credits

all photos belong to me.