Pardon me…Plans Postponed

“Personal Stories” was the Planned theme for today. Can’t get it Produced… Perhaps you’ll accept my ‘Pologies.

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Cathryn Fairlee workshop

Others – Learn from Them!

When someone asks me for advice on how to get started with storytelling, I always answer, “Two things:” 1) “Tell as much and as often as you can” – you learn about yourself, about stories you like, about how to be in front of people…and 2) “Listen as much and as often as you can […]

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figs

Nana Tells Stories…

We sat cross-legged on the backyard sidewalk, under the fig tree, face to face. I’d read loads of books to her in her first 3 years, learning how to hold one up to my laptop’s camera in Colorado for her to see the pictures in California, then pull it back so she could see me, […]

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Meaning-Making

“Story allows us to make information productive. Without Story, information is nothing but a lot of bricks lying about waiting for someone to make constructive use of them.” – Aidan Chambers STORIES MAKE MEANING FOR US That’s what stories do.  And that’s why humans tell stories.

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Loud Enough! Please!

Please let me hear your story – Use a microphone! Too often storytellers think they “don’t need a mic.” Believe you me, I understand: not liking to be tied to a mic-on-a-stand while storytelling not liking holding a mic in your hand while storytelling not liking wearing wires while storytelling not being comfortable with unfamiliar […]

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Kaleidoscope latte

Kaleidoscope Coffee & Stories

Kaleidoscope Coffee is all about connections and creating connections. Today’s is a guest blog by my friend, storyteller Cassie Cushing of Kaleidoscope Coffee & Stories.  She’s a gifted a storyteller, an energetic and creative producer of small mutli-arts events, and she roasted-and-brewed me the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had! Her brick-n-mortar Bay Area Kaleidoscope […]

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Brisbane

J for Jacaranda – But Why?

We’ve come to the “J” day, and I haven’t already written what I had intended for J (Jazz), and it’s crunch time and I just can’t do it – so here’s an improvised post on Jacaranda. Why jacaranda? I just finished reading a beautiful – but very sad – novel set in Australia (The Light […]

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Internal Imagery – It’s So Not Just “Pictures!”

So here’s a story… I was eager to return.  The previous storytelling workshop at the seminary had been so well-received, so well-attended, everyone expressed excitement at scheduling a follow-up a few months later. I planned on really exploring the importance and variety of internal imagery in storytelling. In our culture, at least, it seems that […]

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hands

Hands – “Creating the universe in the palm of the storyteller’s hand”

“Behold the hands… …how they promise, conjure, appeal, menace, pray, supplicate, refuse, beckon, interrogate, admire, confess, cringe, instruct, command, mock and what not besides,

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tree

Gratitude, Gratefulness…Great Fullness!

“My dad traveled a lot when I was a little girl; he was an insurance agent for Employers Mutual of Wausau (Wisconsin). He missed several birthdays, school programs, etc. – but never ever ever felt like an ‘absent father.’ When he was home there was full presence and love and laughter and good conversation and […]

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