Seated in a café, I watched the cast of characters eating lunch at surrounding tables. While witnessing their unfolding stories, it occurred to me that life is a series of performance art pieces. Each story we act out in our private and public personas is a revealing art form, a performance that instructs, creates, and can destroy us.

We often focus our thoughts on ruminating over each piece of our performance art. Could have, should have, wish I had. What if, I wondered as I watched the café dwellers humming along to their unique tunes of life, what if we left it all as is?

What if we witnessed the performance pieces, and out of respect for the art form, we never dreamed of changing a thing? If we could appreciate each unfolding story, each dramatic moment, the way we do when giving audience to a live installation of art, could we perhaps, be at peace with our selves? Could we live with having nothing to fix and nothing to regret? I wonder if it could all be perfect and precious in our viewpoint if only we could perceive our life as art in motion. Of course, this doesn't negate the pain of life experience, but I sense that with the acceptance of the art form of our lives, the pain will become more tolerable, for it will no long feel senseless or unfair. It will become one with the art of living.

Performance art is fleeting, a momentary glimpse into the essence of the artist as performer. It cannot be studied like a sculpture positioned in the center of a room beneath recessed lights. It cannot be viewed and revisited like a painting hung on a wall. Performance art exists for a moment and then it is gone. It enters, it plays, and it exits. It can appear to be easy and effortless, but one must consider all the preparation involved that bring us to the moment when the drama is played out.

To simply be seated in a café observing particular people whose presence bring up a particular set of thoughts and feelings is actually the result of a huge orchestration on the part of the universe that sets us in motion moment by moment. With each inhale and exhale, we collide with the forces of the universe.

I'm presently developing two character sketches for my next book. It helps me to learn what makes my characters tick if I place them into situations to see how they will react. I write down what I see them doing, thinking, and feeling. I actually wrote the first chapter of this book almost a year ago, and as a result, I've been wandering down an investigative path and hunt for research that began with a few simple pages on how two people met.

They knew of each other for years, having been introduced before so as to appear to be acquaintances. But it's at a party, when they truly meet each other in what I call their colliding moment.

Suddenly, people whose lives orbited around and through each other, arrive at a singular recognition of an attraction long gestating in their psyches. They collide, and in this moment orchestrated for years of performance art pieces, their collective experience brings them to a life transforming revelation.

Isn't this true for us? Aren't we all characters in a story that plays out with sudden realizations that took years to come to fruition? We experience and experience and experience and suddenly collide with something orchestrated long ago. Just as the stories of traveling in time machines advise us, if we tamper with our past performance art of living, we could somehow bypass a meaningful colliding moment just around the corner of our future experience. Why would we want to change a thing and risk missing a stellar moment of recognition? What if our painful past is orchestrating our joyful future?

Notice your colliding moments.

Give up regret.

There is no need to change a thing.

Let it be.

Let life bring the next colliding moment.

Margaret Hart Lewis is a Spiritual Author, Educator, Counselor, and Ceremonialist

As a Spiritual Author,

Margaret has published two books - Wisdom Walks In Circles, The Spiraling Journey of Your Inner Voice, Authorhouse, 2004, and Landings, The Spiritual Return to Living Fully in the Body, Authorhouse, 2006. Margaret's books offer readers storylines that touch the soul, open the heart, and expand the mind.

As a Spiritual Educator,

Margaret offers her unique curriculum of exciting online courses and in person workshops and lectures. While generating highly stimulating discussions with participants, Margaret acts as a powerful catalyst for spiritual healing and personal development.

As a Spiritual Counselor,

Margaret's personal consultations provide assistance for releasing internal resistance from achieving your goals and vision of fulfillment. A session with Margaret consists of instruction for accessing personal pathways of spiritual guidance, inner journeys for self-healing and soul retrieval, intuitive coaching, trauma and abuse recovery, and self- development tools for personal empowerment.

As a Spiritual Ceremonialist,

Margaret conducts sacred gatherings to celebrate the Feminine Rites of Passage (puberty, motherhood, menopause), Spiritual Naming, Marriage, Soul Passing, and Fire Ceremonies of Initiation and Transformation.

Margaret has a new companion website to wisdomwalks.com! Please come visit her new addition to the web -- www.margarethartlewis.com!