Meditation of Gratitude (for Actors)

By: Jess Canty

The 2021 train is getting a little bit of a late start out of the station - and we'll have more on that next week. I know this is not the way we all wanted or expected this year to begin - but I truly believe that this train WILL get going here very soon.

So in the meantime I thought it might be a good idea to just take a moment and reflect on all of the things that - even with everything y'all have been through in this last year - you can be grateful for.

I am grateful for TV.

I am grateful for film.

I am grateful for sets.

I am grateful for words.

I am grateful for my craft.

I am grateful for laughter.

I am grateful for my voice.

I am grateful for my body.

I am grateful for television.

I am grateful for my talent.

I am grateful I can self-tape.

I am grateful for my classes.

I am grateful for advertisers.

I am grateful for my delivery.

I am grateful for great actors.

I am grateful for my empathy.

I am grateful for the audience.

I am grateful for commercials.

I am grateful for my creativity.

I am grateful for story-makers.

I am grateful for inspiring performances.

I am grateful for my coaches and teachers.

I am grateful for the smell of an old theater.

I am grateful for my confidence in my ability.

I am grateful for my ability to memorize quickly.

I am grateful for every stylist I have worked with.

I am grateful for the representatives in my future.

I am grateful for my growing network of creatives.

I am grateful for the first director that I worked with.

I am grateful for the critics that push me to be better.

I am grateful for the best director I have worked with.

I am grateful for the buyers and distributors of stories.

I am grateful for every reader I have had for a self tape.

I am grateful for the difficult directors I have worked with.

I am grateful for breakdown services and casting networks.

I am grateful for every reader I have ever had in an audition.

I am grateful for the first casting director who gave me a job.

I am grateful for every show or movie that is casting right now.

I am grateful for every show or movie that is shooting right now.

I am grateful for the crew and crafty and the PA on their first set.

I am grateful for the first representative that took a chance on me.

I am grateful for everyone who has helped me memorize my lines.

I am grateful for everyone who has worked to stay open right now.

I am grateful for every headshot photographer I have worked with.

I am grateful for the moment that made me choose this profession.

I am grateful for the most recent casting director who gave me a job.

I am grateful for every casting director who has invited me into a room.

I am grateful for every casting director who has watched a tape of mine.

I am grateful for my cell phone, my camera, my lights and my blank wall.

I am grateful for the emotional rainbow I am able to harness in my work.

I am grateful for the friends that have encouraged me to pursue this work.

I am grateful for playwrights and screenwrights and poets and improvisers.

I am grateful for my agents and managers who are helping me to find work.

I am grateful for my fellow actors who share their craft with me to learn from.

I am grateful for the family members who encouraged me to pursue this work.

I am grateful for the writers who filled the blank page with words for me to act.

I am grateful for the coaches and teachers and theorists who have come before.

I am grateful that this is hard because that makes my successes that much sweeter.

I am grateful for the producers who found the money that created the job that hired me.

I am grateful to be part of this human tradition that is present in every culture in some way, shape, or form, throughout the world, since our beginnings.