I met my friend Max for coffee yesterday. Two Bit Oper-Eh Shun? the oratorio he performed with in January 2010 is going to be staged in New York City this July as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMTF).

Pretty exciting. The amazing Onalea Gilbertson has been working hard to get all the pieces in place so that the cast, including two performers from the homeless shelter where I used to work, can participate. And Max is getting ready to go. (to hear two songs from the show, click HERE)

“There aren’t many people in Calgary who can say they’ve performed off broadway,” he said to me yesterday as we talked about passports and visa’s and the logistics of organizing for the trip. I’m helping with the logistics here in Calgary and then, later will be joining Onalea in New York to work with the shelters to mentor the participants through the process. The plan is to have individual’s in New York write and perform in the show there with Max and another individual from the original cast performing alongside them.

And then he added, “Think about how you didn’t accept my ‘no’ back then when you started the art program. How from that simple act of our painting together has led to this.”

Max is a kind and caring man. He makes a difference.

We talked about some of the things he needs to do to be ready, willing and able to perform at his best and his commitment to do it.

Max is a man of integrity making a difference in this world through sharing his art, his music and his many gifts with grace and ease.

He sure makes a difference in my life!

Yesterday, as we talked about the changes in the art program and my sense of sadness over what I had framed to be a loss, he helped me put it all into the framework of the natural and inevitable evolution of change. “It hasn’t died, Louise,” he said. ‘It’s just changing.”

And then, he shared his excitement over the ArtBeat Friday happenings. Initiated by staff member, Michael Frisby, every Friday at 4:30 pm performers from the community, both within the shelter and the community-at-large perform on the second floor day area (a large open area where at any given time a couple of hundred people will be seated reading, chatting, connecting, and during meal times, where 800 people will be served). It’s become a regular, Friday late afternoon happening, with clients and staff anticipating the events with great joy.

Michael is making a difference through his commitment to bring music into a place where the music has been lost in many lives. Through bringing the music into the shelter, Michael is awakening spirits to the possibility of reconnecting to the music in their lives.

“I never thought I would sing,” said Max. “I’m a musician, not a singer,” he told Onalea when she first encouraged him to sing.

And now, he can’t stop singing.

Watch out Broadway! Watch out world!  Who knows what a difference Onalea, Max and the rest of the cast of Two Bit Oper-Eh Shun? will make! Who knows how far their ripples will extend.

What kind of difference can you make today by the simple act of reframing what you perceive?

I know it’s sure made a difference for me. Thank you Max!