setting up Leonid Anisimov's apartment

A shining home emerged. The apartment, bed, shower-curtain, desk, microwave, bowls, dining table, tablecloths, lamps, plant, tea, food, candles, and cookies all came from different people. Mark, Carol, Bart, Paul, Yoko, Charlotte, Jessica, Kristine, Peter, Geo, Carol, Rachel, and the mysterious currents of god, swirling a rummage sale into place right down the street.

I move bodies through space, said Bart Sher once, describing his craft. I move energies, I thought.

Last night delicately deepened. "Good enough is not good enough," I said. And, "This is necessary. It creates the strong foundation, to support most difficult work."

I had had a big cleaning day. Dorothy, my housekeeper, came from 9 to noon. We accomplished a ton. The house cleaned. Twenty-five grocery bags of books carried out to the car. Fifteen black garbage bags out to the dumpster. Years of magazines down and dusted, ready to bag. Arts of Asia. RubberStampMadness. Communication Arts. Print. How. A quarter of the garage emptied, floor to ceiling. The driveway, even the plain dirt from the deck to the cars, swept.

"You have to see Howl's Moving Castle," I said, watching with fascination as Dorothy swept the leaves off the dirt. I had never dreamt of such a thing -- sweeping the earth. I wondered if it would create drainage problems. I didn't care. "Sophie cleans and everyone's heartaches are healed," I said. "I like to clean," said Dorothy, who puts on a white lab coat before she works.

A radiant silverware drawer appeared in Leonid's kitchen, beyond anything I could have imagined. It alone lifted the entire beauty and quality of the home. By then we were all in such a shimmering state that the house became fluid, melting into higher and higher beauty. Dust on the wall, the undersides of chairs, crinkled venetian blinds -- a higher Beauty washed through us, cleansing it all.

Madeline L'Engle says a cherubim has a thousand eyes. St. John says they are full of eyes within.

Last night I dreamt I was at a Tibetan handicrafts fair. One booth had children's drawings. I found a crayon drawing of a big entwined root-system, brown roots stretching across 2/3 of the poster-sized paper. On top -- on the right, I was looking at it sideways -- was a buddha. A child's drawing, capturing the happy essence. The buddha wore mirrored goggles. I took the drawing to buy, knowing it was the most valuable thing in the room.

My question to god last night was, What do I need. The answer came in a dream, Do Leonid's work. It was not "Replace Leonid," or "Follow Leonid's orthodoxy." It was "Be a Leonid."

Last night still vibrates in me. What we made. The level of energetic work I was capable of. What that implies for rehearsals and other work.

The home had four magnets on the fridge, blue-and-white dishtowels, a comfy chair, and will be topped off with a crockpot of simmering hot stew fragrantly ready when Leonid arrives. I got that from the Odin, to have a hot fresh meal awaiting the Guest. Yoko and Paul are making it.

Now we rehearse, I said, when the apartment was shiningly clean, and felt like a home. Do you know any scenes together? No, they said, regretfully. We have no scenes together.

I had us stand in a circle on the rug, only the low side-table glowing with light, to bless it. "We each say a wish," I said. "I will say a wish for Leonid." "I will say one for the world," said Paul, after thinking. "I will say one for Leonid's students," said Yoko.

May Leonid find a deep connection with Nature. May he find a deep connection with Chekhov.

May energy gather from the world to this work, be purified, and flow back into the whole world.

May Anisimov-san's students be good pupils of the Stanislavski system. May they be good teachers of the Stanislavski system to their students. May the Stanislavski system spread.

The self. The world. The generations.

"Is the light okay?" asked Yoko, near the end, before the blessings. "I don't know," I said. "I can only see the space. I have a friend who would have finished the light by now."

All the eyes of the cherubim are necessary.