A Taste of Change
Open up & say 'AAAaah' with pen to paper
Hi, fellow human who reads…
After 21 years of calling Venice, California my home, life has sent me into the great wide open. For the foreseeable future, Santa Monica will be home to produce the next version of a play I wrote (article), auditioning for TV/Films, and writing. Lots of writing.
Today’s missive is being penned from “the HOME of the HOMELESS” as legendary multi-hyphenate Harry Shearer proudly declared for years on my favorite NPR show - the brilliant satirical syndicated romp; ‘Le Show’ radio program (listen here: Le Show).
Granted, SaMo as a city is 2.5x larger than Venice… they must have better PR in combatting the presence of houseless residents because that moniker seems to ring true. Can you blame humans for wanting to live in a place where it is 72 degrees and sunny just about every day? I know California gets a lot of bad press when it comes to houseless humans, but I have to tell you, where you are some homeless people need help. See if we can have more compassion for our sick and suffering moving forward. But by the grace of God, that could be someone you love or… well, you.
While I do have my life simplified and reduced to what will fit in my van, I am living OUT of my van - not IN MY VAN. The move-out from my longest stint in any home of 13 years is still fresh at 2 months today, and the taste of change still extreme, I am flourishing and thriving after being taken out of a planter that had grown too small for my roots. This tree is shooting into the sky and I promise to only throw shade where it is wanted or needed. Sorry Santa Monica, that line came after the homeless comments.
Can you taste the changes in your life too? Let’s get into it…
The human body has 32 total senses while 5 are reserved in the mouth for taste: umami, sour, sweet, bitter, and salty. Taste buds regenerate about every 10 days and live to do one job: make sure what you put in you is safe to eat. In a world seemingly more and more unsafe, I’ve developed a strong taste for putting things in my mind and heart that keep me from becoming unwell. And that is no small feat during Kali Yuga. The greatest tool I’ve cultivated as a practice in 2024 is writing. A sure-fire, no-joke, never-not-effective, easy daily way… to make sense of feelings, keeping them separate from the facts. That’s right Earthlings of 2024 and beyond facts are not feelings and one day you too will die. Two things you know but continue to forget (or ignore), because you are human after all. Ahhh, to be alive! What I was going to write about?
WRITING! Like our taste buds, it can also be bitter, sweet, sour, and salty… even umami (which is your favorite sensation… the one that arrives before whatever you are putting in your mouth does… that pleasant, long-lasting, mouthwatering, and coating sensation on the tongue when you can’t wait to taste something?). Umami is what I hope happened when you saw this in your inbox. Today’s post on the two-month anniversary of leaving a place I called home for 156 months is dedicated to the practices of writing… a pleasant, sometimes bitter and often sweet, taste of change.
My favorite 5 flavors of writing for your palette to digest today:
Daily Journal
Evening Journal
1:1 Form
Long-Form
Long-Form turned Long-Term turned Long-View Visioning
1. DAILY JOURNAL
Never having been a daily journal person (diaries, notebooks, blah bla bleh), it was new to me. I was going on a sabbatical from acting in July 2017 when I started, while I did write at LAX, on the plane to Moscow and Munich… it was sitting having a coffee and a smoke in this plaza that filled the pages of the first of twenty-one Moleskines over the next three years. I was hooked.
Writing in the morning became the new routine, with a hot beverage after a meditation ritual as a part of my daily practice - BEFORE TURNING ON MY PHONE. It has become one of my favorite moments of the day. Clears my mind allowing focus and clarity with what there is to do and handle in the next waking day. Forces me to be present in the miracle and in the gratitude of life versus the resentments lingering from yesterday or the fears trapping me in F.uture E.vents A.lready R.uined and F.orgetting E.very A.vailable R.esource.
89,000 humans do not wake up from sleep every day on Earth, a 0.0000000000000001867% chance. I like those odds but still rejoice waking in the morning, feeling like a lottery winner.
Morning pages start as a daily to-do list with small drawings or sketches or I write the hours of the day down the page leaving space to fill in meetings, appointments, and things that need to take place to learn, earn, and thrive. It can also be a page filled with a free-form stream of consciousness (often hard to read, lacking any punctuation or capitalization). Or just writing to myself about dreams I had the night before or things I see about my human journey. Whatever I put in the journal… the adage stands pat: JUST START. It has grown and built me into a writer who, according to 400 people, just penned a pretty good play that will pay me to produce and perform in 2025.
That was NOT ON MY BINGO CARD.
Just start. I did and it changed my relationship with myself first and foremost, my relationship with my higher power/G*d second, and my relationship with everything else third. In that order.
PRO TIP from your buddy Boise: Get a nice notebook and expensive pen, and treat yo’self. You’re worth it and nice paper and flowing ink make for more value in what you put in there, keeping this capture tool from becoming some b*llsh*t list of groceries or to-do’s that will never happen. I use the aforementioned Moleskine and I am not going to tell you my favorite pen. The last time I bragged about it, went to Staples and they were sold out. Find your own damn fave pens people and stop buying up mine. Half kidding.
2. EVENING JOURNAL
Eventually, the love of journaling bled into the night.
It was an exercise my friend Casey told me about that if you have my number or follow me on socials (Instagram), you know I refer to as THE FOUR FIVES.
Before bed, make a list of the following four categories:
5 things you are grateful for, 5 things you did well today, 5 things you love about yourself, and 5 things you have no power or control over. Here’s an example for the sake of show and tell:
FOUR FIVES example for - Friday, December 6, 2024
5 things I am grateful for 1.substack 2.you 3.this home I am in 4.Anya the cat 5.MyVan
5 things I love about myself 1.DivineFaith 2.Talents 3.Serenity 4.Practices 5.Resiliency
5 things I did well 1.wrote 2.listened 3.shared 4.gave service where needed 5.Prayed
5 things I have no control over 1.57Wars 2.Traffic 3.Politics 4.Insanity 5.Other People
I did that for 18 months and barely missed a night doing so. It transformed me and made a nighttime journal live by the bed for more than ‘things I need to remember when I wake up tomorrow’ (if I wake up that is).
My nighttime journaling practice is different now. The journal I currently have by the bed says CARPE DIEM on its cover (which is funny so technically I had already in fact seized the day by bedtime). I’m CARPE NIGHTing… and YES the Latin word for the night is NIGHT and the journal practice is more simple. I write to God/Cosmic Creator/Universal/Ultimate Consciousness… whatever the mood may be, mostly ‘Dear God’ or ‘Guide of Divinity’… followed by a gratitude list for all who I have interacted with today, a list of people who are suffering, or just a love note simple as ‘I love you, thank you God’ if I am really tired and just need to hit the lights and the pillow in that order. Some nights I wake up with the light on but the journal happens first. And don’t pick up the phone after the journal. That is the other thing that has become part of being healthy and happy.
3. 1:1 FORM
Sending postcards and letters has always been my jam. I just had 100 printed with a photo of the front door of my old house on Flower Ave. If you were to visit me at some point from October 2011 through October 2024 at that home, you know what I am talking about. When I went public about moving, several of my friends said “Are you going to take your door?” to which I said, “Not planning on it if I want my security deposit back.” If you would like a postcard from me with my new mailing address, please send me a private message with your address and I will mail one to you. If you don’t want one, here is what they look like… thanks for saving me a stamp.
And the other side of the postcard with my change of address and some Fibonacci…
Sending thank you letters, postcards, and real mail is 1:1. If you get all giddy opening anything other than a holiday card or some b*llsh*t someone bought at a store, written on real paper, BY HAND, placed in an actual envelope someone had to seal and put a stamp on... you are my kind of people. (Postcards are shortcuts but they still make an effort and end up on a fridge or wall, so… don’t judge).
4. LONG-FORM STORY
I grew a mustache after shaving a grief beard when my Step-Mom died in August 2021. Shaved it into the stache as my Mom didn’t like my beard. When I looked in the mirror and saw it, my first acting thought since writing and publishing the book was:
WHAT DID ALBERT EINSTEIN SOUND LIKE, ANYWAY?
It was that upper lip hair that led me down a rabbit hole I am technically still DEEP INSIDE OF. The How’s Your Heart Guide is also an example of writing 1:1 as I wrote it for you, not for a group of humans. Just so we can get better 1:1. And it was Professor Albert Einsteins late in life epiphany regarding the matter to which he said:
Postcards, letters, books… write to the ones you love. They will keep it and read it more than once, I promise.
5. LONG-FORM TURNED LONG-TERM TURNED LONG-VIEW VISIONING
See what happens? You just start each morning, with a page. Then it grows into a possible night practice and reminds you how much you love to write to people 1:1 using the actual mail. Those drawings, realizations, and long-form missives become something worth sharing with more than just you and your journal.
My latest long-form journal entry that was a short film turned feature script then my first play is now being expanded from 55 pages to 89 pages so we can put it up for a 10-week run somewhere in Santa Monica, California. While I am cat sitting and have a PO Box (ICYMI -1217 Wilshire Blvd PO Box # 3094 Santa Monica CA 90408) - technically without a lease or a place to call my own: I AM HOMELESS in SANTA MONICA California. THE HOME OF THE HOMELESS.
AND THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE FOR ME TO CALL HOME RIGHT NOW.
Boise Thomas is a writer, actor, and multi-hyphenate currently doing re-writes to his play E=mc2 | Einsteins meet Charlie Chaplin, he will produce. It will be directed by Dana Resnick and is coming to a playhouse in West Los Angeles, California sometime in early 2025.
Consider subscribing to stay connected and get information about tickets to the play.
If you live outside of California, Boise plans on bringing the play to you… so just keep praying, writing, and practicing making lists of what you are grateful for, did well, love about yourself, and are powerless over.
HAPPY HOLY DAYS - BE KIND