“I see you once a year. You’re like family!” I said to my friend, Morgen Reynolds, at the Florida Storytelling Festival. She’d been coming with her mother every year from Montana, and this was the third year in a row. The feeling when I saw Morgen felt so familiar. I grew up gathering every year …Read More
Tag: Storytelling
Stories are powerful medicine ~ Regi Carpenter
There was once a young woman whose only son died. Her heart was so heavy with grief that she could not go on. She went to Buddha and asked for a magic potion to take away the grief. “Of course,” said the Buddha, “I just need one small thing. You must bring me a mustard …Read More
Storytelling as Medicine, Online Courses
I’m a physician and storyteller. How does a physician become a storyteller? Well, that’s a long story (coming soon), but right now I’ll just say that “healing” comes to us in so many different way. Today, along with my stethoscope and my prescription pad … I carry stories as my medicine. Stories are Medicine Stories …Read More
The Cliché of Cinderella
Nearly every child in America can tell you the story of Cinderella. Some of them have watched the Disney version of the movie so often they can recite the dialogue. By the time they are old enough for the story of Cinderella to be of real emotional help to them, they have heard it so …Read More
Homework for Life ~ Matthew Dicks
“As you begin to take stock of your days, find those [story] moments — see them and record them — time will begin to slow down for you. The pace of your life will relax.” ~ Matthew Dicks, Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Matthew Dicks assigns his …Read More
Telling the Difficult Story
“We know from the testimony of both victims and perpetrators that silence makes abuse possible.” ~Loren Neimi and Elizabeth Ellis, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories We tell our difficult stories to make the world a better place. In therapy or therapeutic safe space, sharing our raw stories allows us to process emotions, …Read More
Not how the story should end
In my online workshop on telling personal stories, we devote a whole class to folk tales. You might be asking, “What do folk tales have to do with personal stories?” Folk tales taught me the structure of stories. The classic plots, themes, messages occur over and over again in the folk tales and are reworked …Read More
Japanese American Internment Camps, WWII
On December 7, 1941, Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. This surprise attack would “awaken a sleeping giant” (Isoroku Yamamoto). Shocked and awakened to the atrocities of war brought to their own soil, the United States of America entered World War II after two years on the side-lines. For the mainland United States, another bomb …Read More
Truth and Story come together
Do you remember the confusion as a child? What is truth? What is story? Adults loved it when, as a little child, I use my imagination and tell them a story. Talking animals, kings and queens, knights on quests, magical objects…. The world is only limited by my imagination. And then one day, POW! The …Read More
Welcoming the Other ~ Jim Brule
I recently took an online storytelling workshop with Jim Brule called “Welcoming the Other.” What could that be about? What does that have to do with storytelling? Through this interactive workshop, I experienced the power of story to transport me into the experience of “the other” and awaken empathy and compassion. This is transformational storytelling. …Read More