By Chris King. When presenting my “How to Tell Personal Stories”workshop at a 1993 Ohio storytelling conference, I shared the story of my son’s bout with cancer in 1989 for the first time in front of a live audience. Finally, I could tell it with the truth and drama it possessed. Why for the first […]
The Everlasting Healing Power of a Story
by Laura Simms. In a tale from the Caucusus, a girl’s demand brings balance into the world. She requests that the Rose of Paradise be brought to her by her father. Her dangerous confrontation is with a Div and his Div sister, monster- like creatures that guard and covet the Rose, stolen and kept in
by Seth Kahan. When I visit corporate offices, I so often experience a sense of separation from nature, as if people have forgotten about the sun, the moon, the seasons. Day after day, in climate-controlled hallways and putty-colored cubes, people work ceaselessly to further their organization’s objectives. Have they lost touch with something essential, with
Bringing Us Back to Life: Building Community in Business Through Ritual and Story
by Lorna MacDonald Czarnota. The blood on Becky’s cracked lip had begun to dry by the time she stepped from the bedroom into the living room. The door creaked loudly on its hinges. Becky froze, hoping Jeff wouldn’t wake. The only other sound was a low hiss from the television station that had gone off
By Patti Christensen. One of the ancient stories that pops up in modern tales is Pandora’s Box. We hear that if some action is taken it will “open Pandora’s Box” or cause some terrible thing to happen that cannot be undone. An Internet search finds the following uses: “War on Iraq will open Pandora’s Box,”
by Caren Neile. Twice in two months this past winter, I participated in peace rallies at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. The rallies were held in the “free speech area,” little more than a slab of concrete connecting two sides of the urban campus. Because I teach storytelling at the university and host a
Is There a Storyteller in the House? Telling for Peace
by Rosann Kent (and Sarah Moore). When I wanted to understand the role of recall in the aging process, I did what any self-respecting journalist would do: I interviewed the experts. I talked to psychiatrists and psychologists who specialize in memory, researchers who study the mind-brain connection, as well as the pioneers of reminiscence and
The Rising Is in the Telling: Learning from My Elders
By Jack Maguire. In “The King Has Horse’s Ears,” a traditional Irish story, the king’s barber tells the secret tale behind that title to a tree, the only confidant he can trust. Later, a harp is made from that tree, and, yes, the harp itself sings that tale to a throne room full of the
Healing The Earth: The Guardianship Project
By Garth Gilchrist. Growing up in the forests of western Washington, wading up maple-canopied streams and scrambling through the branches of big fir trees, I was happy. I still draw on those memories, and the leafy stories they spawned. They provide me with a good deal of my own sense of roots, values and identity.
The Healing Power of Nature Images in Story
by Allison Cox. A small ad on the back page of the local middle school newspaper read: “seniors wanted for oral history project. The Journalism students would like to interview you to learn what life was like in previous decades. Please call if you are interested.” “This newspaper is distributed for free all over the
Sharing Our Stories, Intertwining Our Lives: Strengthening Community Ties Through Oral History
