Why Do Stories Matter? Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.— Ben Okri In the face of the apocalyptic news we are surrounded by daily, we can justifiably ask why do stories matter? Will a story bring back lost homes and lives? Will it restore infrastructure,…
“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be Notorious.” Rumi Today I started teaching a class “Living Out Loud ” for the Transformative Language Arts Network . The first class addresses how fear and shame silence us. What do we fear when we consider sharing a…
Part of every storyteller’s summer is performing in public libraries, usually not like this one. More often like this Dave Ruch and I met last summer when we were both doing a showcase for the Northern New York Public Library System. Dave’s work was wonderful, interesting, kid friendly and very…
My old high school is the home of the Vikings. Thousand Island High School is smack dab between Clayton, my hometown and Cape Vincent. My class was the first graduating class to leave Clayton Central School and go to TI High. This was a long time ago and I expected…
This Thanksgiving the turkeys came home to roost. When I was a child Thanksgiving was so much fun. My mother rose early to stuff and bake a 25 pound turkey. Mary and I peeled ALOT of potatoes, each of us seeing how long we could make the peels before they…
“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” Henry David Thoreau The West Texas Hummingbird Feeder Cam is nestled in the mountains outside Fort Davis, Texas, at an elevation of over 6200 feet. This site hosts a total of 24 Perky Pet…
I told myself, “It’s just a chair. Get rid of it. It’s only a chair.” Ah, but what a chair. Big, soft, comfy, and a recliner. A real chair. A sit back, put your legs up, pop the top, watch tv, fall asleep in, and drool kind of chair. A…
Sometimes everything has to be inscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you. ( excerpt from David Whyte’s poem The Journey) I’ve been writing a book for the last 21 years… yes, really. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that…
This is my friend Steffani Raff’s new book , The Ravenous Gown. It’s a beautifully written and thoughtful book about girls and beauty. I wish I had read this book when I was a girl. I wish my mother had read this book when she was a girl and…
I teach two sections of storytelling every semester at Ithaca College. Often students come to class thinking it will be a survey or historically based class on the function of stories in different cultural, religious and racial communities. Many have also confided that they hope it’s an easy “A”…