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Reflecting on the Past by Sally Spasovski
I’ve not been one to spend time reflecting on past events. That’s particularly true with events in my childhood. My memory of childhood has always been sketchy, and I just figured that my memory for detail wasn’t as good as other folks. As I’ve grown older, the need to remember has become stronger. What is…
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Spinnin’ Gold by Súle Greg Wilson
Glossophobia – one in four folks report having it. All my life, somehow, folks have noticed I do NOT have that affliction. As a result, I’ve been thrust out to be spokesman of one kind or another since kindergarten. . . but that’s another story. Speaking of “story,” I’m just finishing up my ninth class…
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The Evolution of Personal Stories by David Brake
I spent Thanksgiving in Omaha, Nebraska. While gathered at the feast, my only sibling and my father asked me “so what’s new with you?” There are scores of things I could have told them, but I chose to tell them about my Personal Storytelling class. Perhaps I was secretly…
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International Revelations by Pamela Bosch
I’ve been educating graduate students in physical therapy for over 20 years now, but I am still keen to improve my own teaching skills. My husband, Paul, had been talking up the storytelling curriculum at South Mountain Community College for so long, that I thought it was great for him when he announced he planned…
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Come on People Now by Vanessa Thomas-Wilson
If you hear the song I sing You will understand, listen! You hold the key to love and fear all in your trembling hand. Just one key unlocks them both It’s there at your command. Come on people now Smile on your brother Everybody get together Try to love one another Right Now. -Chester Powers…
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The Sacred Ceremony by Kaden Sheffield
Last week I attended a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. In two hours of vocal, choral and instrumental music in multiple styles Bernstein tells the story of our modern crisis of faith. In it, the central character, called the Celebrant, begins searching for meaning in his life by trying to search for God.…
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Is it “Sacred” when everything is? by Nancy Wolter
There’s a poignant interview, and his last before dying, between the beloved children’s author, Maurice Sendak, and Terry Gross, the host of Public Radio’s Fresh Air, that for me, epitomizes the sacred. It was not just the quality of his voice— fragile, yet deeply alive and brimming with love…
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A Classroom Cell-ebration (or How I Earned My Wings at a Fledgling Charter School) by Margaret McGill
It was the Fall of 1996, and I found myself stepping mid-semester into the inaugural Fall term of a Mesa-area charter school (Junior/Senior High.) It was one of the largest in Arizona with a student body of approximately 1500. I was hired as the Chair Person of the…
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The Essence of the Human Story by Ralph Muzio
I had heard about and seen posts announcing different storytelling events for some time when a friend suggested that we take a class together. I did and I am delighted to be part of this storytelling project. Unfortunately my friend didn’t make it, she pulled the old Lucy…
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An Antidote to Knee Knock by Paul Bosch
I was never one to relish speaking in front of people. I did speak at church from time to time as I was growing up but was always rather nervous. When I did career surveys in high school, that tried to match one’s interests and skills with college programs and a future career,…
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Self Consciousness Fading Away by Eva Wagner
All my life I have been extremely self-conscious. It started with the impressions on a child of the 1940s, when children should be seen but not heard. Granted, as I see it from my perspective today, grown-ups had to survive a World War somehow. But that…
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Thank You for Telling Your Truth by Joyce Baker
A popular phrase, these days, is “thank you for telling your Truth”. It strikes me as an odd phrase, along with the similar phrases, “thank you for sharing” or “thanks for being honest”. All of these have become clichés in television, radio, and our conversations. None of these trite phrases necessarily means that someone is…