Native American
-
Home is Where the Heart is by Tricia Phillips
I had a few questions on my mind for a while. What is a sacred place? What makes it sacred? This can only be answered by the individual. What I find sacred another may not. I thought about not writing about home as sacred because not everyone has the sanctity of a home. There have…
-
Red, Red Rose: The Use of Language in Oral Storytelling by Genevieve Hogan
Story is the way we make sense of the world. In the oral tradition there is often a focus on plot – on what happens – the problem, the resolution, the growth. Because oral stories are remembered, we tend to focus on major elements, rather than specifics like word choice. However, the words we choose…
-
Trust, Permission, and Ownership in Personal Stories by Sally Borg
One of the readings I did for class was from Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories, by Loren Niemi and Elizabeth Ellis. They write that there are three basic principles that make up the foundation for the telling of difficult stories: trust, permission, and ownership. I considered this foundation as I looked back…
-
What One Believes is Sacred is Sacred by Marian Giannatti
Pinned on Karma Rock: Whitewater Kayaking as Religious Experience, by A. Whitney Sanford, is a detailed look at a “lived religion;” evaluating whitewater kayaking as a spiritual, sacred encounter. The physical act of kayaking, combined with the intellectual action required for the sport is a method of seeking the divine – in the natural world.…
-
The Twists and Turns of Life Give us Stories by Emily Parker
As of recently, my life has taken lots of twists and turns. Some of these turns have been wonderful and some of them have been scary and frustrating. Last year I had the wonderful pleasure of attending school and not working. This was wonderful because it gave me time to focus on school, being as…
-
Ancestral Messages by Brittany Castro
Back in the summer I originally signed up for African folktales. Then it got canceled, so I went online to see what other storytelling classes were being offered. I really wanted to take a story telling class because I enjoy them so much and I love the environment of the class room setting and how…
-
Paris and Mom by Terri Jackson
As a storyteller, I follow in my mother's footsteps. A single mother, she received her BA from the University of Minnesota. After graduating she sailed on the Queen Mary Two to Paris and then to London. She shared many stories with me including what it was like to travel by herself in the 1950's. Women,…
-
Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed – Celebrate September 26 with Apples! by Kathy Eastman
What could be more American than apple pie?! The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock almost four hundred years ago. As the term pilgrim implies, the people were seeking a sacred site and ultimately founded a colony, states and nation. These early Europeans had a strong core of Christian religious value systems. They brought with them…
-
Time by Elizabeth Wunsch
We are asked to look back. Peel the layers. Find an image. Breathe and invite in our soul. Capture the moments that have inhabited our time. Einstein describes time as “a continuum, without any beginning or end.” Time holds the key to our stories. “Remember the time that…”, “I can remember a time when…”, “Once…
-
The Divine in the Ordinary by Chrissy Dart
“The divine is in the ordinary.” I cannot remember who drilled this statement into my psyche, but it resurfaced while thinking about defining what exactly is a “Sacred Story.” The divine is in the ordinary. I like that statement. Can I live my day with an openness to see the divine in the ordinary? What might that day look…
-
I Can’t Remember a Thing by Nancy Wolter
I am the legal guardian for my friend, Jackie Geiler, who turned 93 years old this May. I am often asked, “is Jackie is a blood relative, were we family friends, or what?” It’s simple, I answer, Jackie was once my boss for a whole year. That’s it. In 1979, the director at Decatur Area…
-
The Celery Story by Elizabeth Wunsch
I have the privilege to work for the world’s first food bank, St Mary's Food Bank, here in Phoenix. Every year we have the honor to be the recipient of the National Association of Letter Carriers yearly food drive. It is a one-day national drive that originated here in Phoenix and spread throughout the country.…