Transformation

I spent the day today at a conference by the ocean, about an hour's drive from my home.

It was raining when I left, and I went directly inside to the conference sessions; although I was within easy walking distance of the boardwalk, I never left the hotel again until it was time to return home.

During the course of the day I spoke with many people, both old friends and strangers... one woman who I had never met before mentioned that she lived with her sister. This gave me a lovely excuse to reminisce about my own time of living with my sister, and to remember how much fun we had with that.

You and your sister get along well, then? I asked, in an almost rhetorical way.

Actually, she said, we didn't get along at all for a really long time. At one point it was so bad we couldn't even stand to be in the same room together. When I told my mother we were moving in together, she couldn't keep herself from saying, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

But it was a good idea, and somehow both sisters knew it.

I'm sorry that I missed the ocean, but glad that I had the presence of mind to make a little room in my reminiscing for someone else's very different story.

My Life In Stories - Project Update

I've had several pieces of good news in my ongoing My Life In Stories project. (This is the project in which I record some of the oft-told stories of my life, first by titling them, and then by gradually writing the stories themselves. The idea started with a letter from my friend Fred, and is described in greater detail here.)

My entire list is currently over sixty stories long, and I've only written down ten of them so far.

But here's the good news, in two parts:

1) At the end of the summer, the artist, blogger, and super-mom Carolee Sherwood (aka the Polka Dot Witch) stumbled on my project and decided she wanted to play along! So I now finally have someone to add to my long-dreamed-of participants list. (I've had folks express interest before, but I think Carolee may be the first person to actually "up and do it.")

2) Just last week I got a postcard from AMC (via the fabulous though somewhat glitchy postcardx) asking me to write up a new story. Which I have now done! So if you need a little weekend reading, you can hop on over to the list and click on any of the highlighted ones. (Bonus points if you can spot the recent addition.)

I am so pleased to be getting this positive feedback as I continue to explore the relationship between our lives and our stories. And now there's a story-based project to be excited about on May 10 of next year, entitled Pangea Day (embedded video is 2.5 minutes long):



What's your story?

Yummy - Sunday Scribblings

(My own personal contribution to the yumminess quotient of the world...
chocolate mousse cake from scratch, with powdered sugar from a stencil I found on the internet.)

Language has periodically gotten in the way of my enjoyment of the yummier things in life.

Several foods which eventually made it onto my all-time favorites list spent many years languishing in a kind of purgatory.

The only kinds of cheese I'd ever eaten when I heard about cheesecake for the first time were cheddar cheese and American cheese. I just couldn't imagine how either of those and cake could play well together, so I turned up my nose at cheesecake for years. So sad.

Sourdough bread met a similar fate. I thought grownups were crazy to deliberately seek out something with a name so clearly warning of an unhappy experience. Finally I accidentally ate a slice of sourdough bread, loved it, and THEN realized what I'd been missing all along.

So now my food motto is, "If it's dead, I'll try it." I don't care what you call it; I don't want to miss out again!

(Thanks to the women of Sunday Scribblings
for their continuing inspiration. In other news,
my contributions to the Creative Act project this week
are going to be additions to the My Life In Stories Project.
Today's entry is here. If you see a title that piques your interest,
let me know in the comments; maybe I'll write that one next!)

On the other hand...

There is, of course, an upside to our current weather situation.

I'm going to be trying to write up (down?) some of the stories from the My Life In Stories project in the coming week; any requests?

Poem later today, if I get lucky.

Update: no poem, but my account of my Personal Snow Day is here.

I Have an Idea

Here's my idea:

I'm a college counselor, and I want to work story-telling into my day job.

I love stories. The older I get, the more convinced I become that my stories and I are in a constant dialogue of creation.

As I talk with students about their hopes and dreams for the next chapter in their life, I know the most important thing is for me to listen. If you know me, you know I'm a pretty good talker. The listening is work for me. I welcome the practice, and I am grateful to my students for all that they teach me every year.

Now what I'd like to do, as inspired by Patti Digh and others, is deepen my students' and my understanding of how the stories we tell affect our reality.

If you have any thoughts or advice about my idea, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

I'm listening.

(And thank you to the women of Sunday Scribblings
for their continuing inspiration.)