Tag: relationships

  • Heart-Lifting for Disheartening Times: Storytelling Creates CONNECTION

    Heart-Lifting for Disheartening Times: Storytelling Creates CONNECTION

    It’s all so overwhelming and it seems everyone is tired, discouraged, maybe angry or cynical or depressed, maybe confused or disheartened…just weary. Each day during this April A-Z Blogging Challenge I’ll offer a short musing on an aspect or two of the many ways the ancient-yet-very-contemporary experience of storytelling – both listening…

  • Grateful for the Sognefjord and Sogna Sue

    Grateful for the Sognefjord and Sogna Sue

    So I just posted this on Facebook this morning: “It’s seriously challenging to assemble thoughts and energy when grieving, yet it’s also good and beneficial to have good things to plan and prepare for…while seriously challenging… I have several really good such things coming up! Tonight is one: A gig…

  • “The Talk”…All Our Stories, Black/White/Brown/Red, After Ferguson

    “The Talk”…All Our Stories, Black/White/Brown/Red, After Ferguson

    We NEED to tell OUR stories. And we NEED to hear OTHERS’ stories. I know the teeniest-weeniest bit about “having The Talk” with my sons. I’m not talking about the birds’n’bees – I mean the one that African-American parents have with their children about being very, very careful if interacting…

  • “People Just Want More Booty” (and she wasn’t talking about pirates…)

    “People Just Want More Booty” (and she wasn’t talking about pirates…)

    Seriously? SERIOUSLY??!? [I was planning to publish Part 2 of my blog series “Story Slams Making Waves – What’s the Story, Anyway?!” – but find I must take a different direction today…] The stories we tell about women and girls:

  • Nana Tells Stories…

    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…

  • J for Jacaranda – But Why?

    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…

  • Faeroy – my family’s tiny Norwegian island

    Faeroy – my family’s tiny Norwegian island

    “What’s your favorite story to tell?” – One of the most common questions asked me during Q&A sessions over the years. I used to demur about how I love ALL my stories; that’s why I tell them. But…a favorite one has indeed emerged in recent years:

  • How My Dog Reminded Me: “Storytelling” is Not Just a Compliment

    How My Dog Reminded Me: “Storytelling” is Not Just a Compliment

    Yesterday – it was 70 degrees, blue-sunshiny, the ducks were paddling in the stream and the owls were hooting back and forth…the old doggie was enjoying stretching out on the still-dormant grass and soaking in the welcome early spring-ish warmth. Today – it’s been snowy-blowy out there, big flakes swirling…

  • In Writing and Storytelling:  Anecdotes are Great – Stories are Even Better

    In Writing and Storytelling: Anecdotes are Great – Stories are Even Better

    He was 12 and I was 7. Yep, Mark was old enough to occasionally be my babysitter on the early Friday evenings when our parents had bowling league and our older high-school-aged brother and sister had other plans. And he knew how to make the food of the gods: buttered…