Liz Warren
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Now That Was a Good Story by Cindi Kishiyama-Harbottle
I have finally started feeling like I might be becoming a Good Storyteller. My mother asked me why I was taking this class and my response to her was to be able to tell a “Good Story!” She responded back that I have always told stories. She said that I had the same storytelling ability…
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Back Again by Sally Borg
I have taken Creating and Telling Personal Stories many times and find that I want to keep coming back to it. You might wonder why, and I have wondered “why?” myself. You’ve been there, and done that, and you’re going back AGAIN? But personal stories are my favorite to listen to, and my favorite to tell,…
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Positive Actions from Negative Thoughts by Mario Avent
I was bullied from the time I was in grade school, through high school, and in the military. I was berated by people’s negative words. I continually heard people tell me “You are stupid,” “You are worthless,” “You are ugly,” and my favorite, “No one will love you.” I heard that from an ex-girlfriend Dealing…
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Donating Memories by Mark Compton
When my mother passed away she left behind quite a few personal items: photo albums, letters, newspaper clippings; a stash of things I had never seen before. I was overwhelmed and decided to put it all in a trunk and every so often open the trunk, take something out and decide what to…
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The Wisdom to Know the Difference by Marilee Lasch
I remember my dad every year, looking out the kitchen window, commenting that it was the end of August, almost winter time again. Oh, how I hated those words! It always brought back memories of past winters, walking (yes, I did!) three miles in the snow to school, before snow boots and snow pants were invented.…
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Storytelling in This Life by Dee Munsterman
I’m in the business of listening to and telling stories, one on one, all day long. I’m a Colon Hydro-therapist, which means, very simplistically, I give people enemas, lots of them. Because our body stores emotion in our tissues, this therapy allows my clients to let go that which does not serve them.…
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Learning from Aristotle by Doug Bland
We storytellers have a lot to learn from Aristotle. If you’ve ever taken a class in communication, you’ve probably heard what Aristotle had to say on the subject in his classic, Rhetoric. Those of us who find that storytelling is an important way to advocate for a more just, loving and sustainable world should pay…
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Storytelling as a Sacred Practice by John Gennette
I believe that the art of storytelling is, by its very nature, a sacred practice. In my view, no one has articulated this notion with more clarity than cultural historian Walter Ong, S.J. His book “The Presence of the Word” was dropped in my lap in 2003, and it really spoke to me. Still does.…
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Delicious Day on the Antrim Coast
Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10, 2018 After the bus left Loughcrew to take the students back to Athlone, I drove up to spend the weekend with Liz Weir at Our third stop was at Ballygally Castle in Ballygally and on Ballygally Bay. Clockwise from the top left: tapas and gin cocktails and two…
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Free Weekend!
Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10, 2018 The students returned home from Loughcrew late afternoon on Friday. With Saturday and Sunday completely open, many of them ventured out into the country. On Monday we heard reports from Cork, Galway, and Westport among others. I had driven my own car to Loughcrew so that I…
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Loughcrew
Friday, June 8, 2018 The first Friday of the program is the day we go to Loughcrew in County Meath. It’s part of the Boyne Valley Neolithic ceremonial complex that includes Newgrange. As Jean McMann notes in her book, Loughcrew: The Cairns, “People have probably been telling stories about the Loughcrew Hills for more than…
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First Week of Classes
Tuesday, June 5, 2018: The Irish Storytelling Tradition meets from 9:00 – 11:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday for the four weeks of the program. Since the first Monday of June is a holiday, our first class was on Tuesday. I met the students in the carpark outside our apartments at 8:45 a.m. to walk them…