In many cultures it is said that you die twice. First, when your body leaves this earthly plane. Second, when there is no one left that loves you to utter your name on their lips. On this day of the dead, many cultures have ceremonies to remember and honor their ancestors, visits to graveyards to …Read More
Category: Storytelling
Drinking water from a firehose
It’s 9am as I enter the back of the lecture hall. I glance towards my usual seat — left side, off center, four rows back. I pause at the top of the steps. My eyes adjust to the dim of the indoor lights against the dark industrial carpet. From the back of the lecture hall, …Read More
Storyline Online ~ Famous Actors Read Children’s Books
Reading aloud to children has been shown to improve reading, writing and communication skills, logical thinking and concentration, and general academic aptitude, as well as inspire a lifelong love of reading. Teachers use Storyline Online in their classrooms, and doctors and nurses play Storyline Online in children’s hospitals. The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television …Read More
“Cows don’t give milk.”
A father used to say to his children when they were young: “When you all reach the age of twelve, I will tell you the secret of life.” One day when the oldest turned twelve, he anxiously asked his father, “What is the secret of life?” “I will tell you,” replied the father, “but don’t …Read More
Psych Ward
“Clunk.” The second set of double doors automatically locked behind me with an audible delayed electric thud. I looked up at the clerk at the nursing station. A sudden irrational fear went through my mind, “What if she doesn’t recognize me on the way out?” I’m a medical student, and this is a psyche ward. …Read More
Thick and Thin Stories
What are the stories that you are telling yourself? Does your inner voice tell you that you can or that you can’t? Lani Peterson is a story coach and workshop leader. She refers to limiting stories as “thin stories.” These stories are too thin to hold all of who you are. How can you create …Read More
The Giving Tree ~ Shel Silverstein
The Giving Tree ~ by Shel Silverstein Once there was a tree….and she loved a little boy.And everyday the boy would comeand he would gather her leavesand make them into crownsand play king of the forest.He would climb up her trunkand swing from her branchesand eat apples.And they would play hide-and-go-seek.And when he was tired,he …Read More
Story Factor ~ Annette Simmons
“People don’t want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith—faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell.” ~ Annette Simmons, The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling The objective thinkers are looking for cold hard facts, bullet points, and numbers. …Read More
Storyteller in Residence ~ Crookston Castle
What if every organization had its own Storyteller in Residence? In many indigenous cultures before the written word, the oral storytellers were the keepers of history. Collecting stories, the storyteller was the human library. The stories contained the tribal wisdom. The storytellers told the stories back to the people when they needed them. What would …Read More
How changing your story can change your life ~ Lori Gottlieb
“Once upon a time in a land far far away…” As a communication skill between a teller and a listener, “story” is a structure to convey an experience. With oral storytelling, my words paint on the canvas of the imagination to create sights, sounds, and even tastes and smells. The experience becomes even richer as …Read More