by Celia Hughes

Adam Griebel was born and raised in Austin, Texas, which he still proudly calls his home. He is loving his life in Austin, and spends many days doing things to help out his friends at the Senior Living Center down the road. However, his daily life is centered around his meditation practice, which he discovered in 1998 at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Following a life-altering car crash his senior year in high school, Adam spent several years trying to make sense of the changes in his life. Through Krishna, his meditation practice has evolved over the years. In the beginning his prayer focused on remembering God. Now he focuses his meditation on inward reflection, thinking about using his energy being in service to the absolute, and to others.

There have been many firsts in Adam’s life: tee-boned in an early morning traffic crash, meeting and marrying the love of his life, raising a feisty and intelligent daughter… but starring in the lead role in Art Spark Texas world premiere production of Waiting for the Bus may be counted as one of the standouts.

When he was asked about his first theater experience, Adam laughed a little as he recalled his three-year-old self, demanding the center of attention. And then, when his 3rd grade class clowning ended up with him being sent to the closet, more than once. There was the day he made Hank Helser eat dirt that sent him to the closet, again, but this time he walked out of the closet, and out of the school to enjoy a glorious day of freedom.

In the 2000’s Art Spark’s Actual Lives Austin reigned over the local theater scene as the breaker of disability stereotypes. Adam rekindled his love for acting when he joined the ensemble early on. This ensemble wrote their personal narratives and crafted them into performances pieces. Adam wrote short pieces for performance, but with this new opportunity offered by Waiting for the Bus, he is more than thrilled to be interacting with a director and other actors, to put on a show!

Break a leg, Adam. We can’t wait to see you on the stage in November!

Lotus Blossom

(Adam begins chanting for a few seconds, sitting center stage. Chants the maha mantra a second time, segues into list of names of God. Then he stands to speak:)

These are a few of the million names of God.

In the early morning hours of the eleventh day of November 1989, my buddies and I were partying, without a single thought of the frailty of these mortal lives that we are all participating in.

At approximately 3:30 a.m., we entered the intersection of 6th and Lamar, through a flashing yellow light, only to be broad-sided by a speeding car, with no consideration of a flashing read, westbound on 6th.

Things started making sense again about the of January, 1990.