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Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 69

May 25, 2020 //  by Tommy Hensel//  Leave a Comment

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Feng Shui aerobics.

It started out as such a minor thing. I decided that I needed to finally mop the hardwood floors in my living room. In order to best mop around the area rug, I had to move some furniture away from the perimeter and fold the rug up. Easy peasy.

Now, several hours later I am sitting here sipping a boozy Manhattan cocktail and wondering just what the hell happened today.

I mopped the first quarter of the room, then thought to myself, “You know, maybe it’s time to re-arrange the furniture.” Yesterday, I talked about Feng Shui and I pulled out one of my favorite books on the subject and started thinking about the energy of my apartment.

Clearly, after the stagnation I have felt recently it was important to move my energy around a bit.

So today, after my first few moments of mopping the living room, I started on what would become an epic, all-day adventure. I am thoroughly exhausted. Who needs a gym? Just do a deep cleaning and Feng Shui realignment of your home. It’s guaranteed to raise your cardio and kill off a few calories.

I totally rearranged the furniture in my living room. Then I took one of the tables from that area and swapped it out for one in my bedroom. Then I thought, “That doesn’t look good with the rug.” So I went to my back room and took the rug – after vacuuming it – and moved it into my bedroom which necessitated mopping the entire bedroom and figuring out how to position the rug and shove it under all the existing furniture.

That left the back room. So then I figured, I guess I need to mop this now. So I did, then put the rug that had formerly been in my bedroom there. But I still had a table from my bedroom sitting in the hall, so I then turned my attention to my office.

I moved everything out of one half of the room and mopped it. Then I started putting things back, but ended up moving one table into the living room and then found a home for the table from my bedroom. A huge number of small, decorative items migrated from room to room until I found a more harmonious way of arranging things.

Of course, the kitchen had been the repository of all the “extra” stuff that I didn’t know what to do with, so now I had to focus on that. I stripped the kitchen table and found new placemats and rearranged the plants in the kitchen. I then took all the decorative items and moved them around to new homes in my apartment.

In the process, I took out two large bags of garbage and filled another box for the eventual day when I might be able to donate things to Goodwill again. After all of this, I found myself quite literally laying down in the middle of the living room staring at the ceiling thinking, “What the heck just happened?”

On the upside, this is the first time I have participated in any physical activity in longer than I can remember. Schlepping all of the furniture around was definitely like an aerobics class. On the downside, I feel like I spent my entire day doing things that ultimately don’t make much difference in the greater scheme of things.

Then again, I realize that moving my energy around is important. My feelings of stagnation have been keeping me from moving forward in my life. Maybe this day of Feng Shui aerobics will help me break through my blocks.

Now, I think I need another cocktail.

It’s only Quarantine if it comes from the Quarante province of France. Otherwise, it’s just Sparkling Isolation.

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Category: ThoughtsTag: Sparkling Isolation

About Tommy Hensel

Tommy Hensel is the Director of the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Moraine Valley Community College (www.morainevalley.edu/fpac), a position he has held since January 2008. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, he has worked for more than 35 years as a professional actor, singer, stage manager, director, and arts presenter. He holds a B.A. in music and a B.A. in communication from Florida State University and an M.A. in theater from the University of South Carolina. He currently serves as Chair of the Illinois Presenters Network and is a board member of NAPAMA. He served as co-chair of the 2018 Arts Midwest Conference and currently sits on the professional development committees of both NAPAMA and Arts Midwest.

Prior to his move to Chicago, Tommy was an 11-year resident of the Seacoast region of New Hampshire where he served as Executive Director of the Rochester Opera House and sat on several non-profit arts boards. He has served on grant review panels for the New England Foundation for the Arts, New Hampshire Arts Council, Vermont Arts Council, and Illinois Arts Council. During his years as an arts presenter, he has also served on the juried showcase panels for the Arts Midwest Conference and Performing Arts Exchange.

Among his many theater credits, Hensel was the founding artistic director of the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival (now part of the Gamut Theatre Group in PA). He has over 50 professional directing credits to his name and an extensive resumé as a theatrical performer and cabaret singer. In Chicago, he has a side "gig" as a restaurant reviewer for The Local Tourist website (http://chicago.thelocaltourist.com) and blogs about travel and food at https://www.tableforoneplease.com.

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