A Story is like water

Sometimes a story washes over you, cleanses you, and leaves you open to new possibilities. The National Storytelling Festival started 46 years ago in the small town of Jonesborough, Tennessee. Today, on this annual festival in October, the small town explodes as thousands and thousands come to listen to some of the best performers in …Read More

The Lion King – Circle of Life

Disney has become an iconic part of American culture. Reaching into the mythical stories from cultures around the world, Disney recreates those stories to bring the messages from those narratives into modern light. Pablo Picasso famously stated, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Pablo was a dramatic Spaniard; I prefer to say the secret of …Read More

“Sorrow Songs” become “Spirituals”

Originally called “Sorrow Songs,” they were composed by African slaves whose names we will never know. With hidden stories and meanings, what we call “Spirituals” today are songs of suffering, survival, and hope. How do we survive when the worst happens? Through these songs, faith was transmitted as the stories of the Bible became the …Read More

#19: Heart Transplant (Sonja Greene-Smith)

“It is our stories that make us human.” In medical school, I learned all the technical details about heart transplant. I studied the medical criteria that makes you a candidate, the drugs required post-transplant, and the labs and physical symptoms to monitor. Yet, what I did not yet learn were the stories. Those stories came …Read More

For Grief by John O’Donohue

For Grief —by John O’Donohue When you lose someone you love,Your life becomes strange,The ground beneath you becomes fragile,Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;And some dead echo drags your voice downWhere words have no confidenceYour heart has grown heavy with loss;And though this loss has wounded others too,No one knows what has been taken from …Read More

Anne Lamott – 12 things I learned from life and writing

All truth is paradox. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes – including you. There’s nothing outside of you that will help in any kind of lasting way… Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy and scared, even the people who seem to have it most together. Chocolate with 75% …Read More