At our February workshop the following stories were shared:

  Pauline Lyttle shared a personal story about her childhood in post-war England.  She said that the title was going to be either "Mother's Love" or "Love is a Pineapple."  If you missed this great story you really missed something!  She combined a little history with a family story and the result was quite moving.  This story lead to a discussion about sharing stories that may be difficult to tell because of their emotional content.  Pauline indeed did make a gift of story to us with this tale.

Mary Ann Janson  suggested a book that would be of use should you wish to explore telling some of those more difficult tales.

Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories by Loren Niemi and Elizabeth Ellis, Little Rock: August House Publishers, Inc., 2001.

  Some excerpts: "A difficult story is any story whose content makes it challenging to tell or uncomfortable to hear. While we believe that it is both valuable and necessary to tell difficult stories, undertaking this work means making a journey that may not go directly to a safe harbor . . . you may find yourself faced with personal emotional and psychological material that you were not prepared to consider. The opportunity to wrestle with the problem of how to tell the story within a framework may be helpful to you. It is not appropriate for storytellers to do personal therapy with an unsuspecting listener. The therapeutic story is not about making the listener squirm, want to run away, or pity you. It is not about your losing control or trying to use your listeners as an involuntary sounding board while you try to understand what happened and what it means. It is about making a gift of story to them. It is about the opportunity for the listener to identify with the emotional core and meaning of our common human experience in the particular story being told. "
 
The authors lead the reader through the process of shaping and artfully telling difficult stories. "The world is so full of care and sorrow that it is a gracious debt we owe to one another to discover the bright crystals of delight hidden in somber circumstances and irksome tasks." - Helen Keller


Ben Powell shared a story from Campfire Stories by William Forgey, M.D.  The story was titled "The MacKenzie River Ghost."  The introduction to the book says that the stories are probably best used with children 11 to 15 years old.  Another source for scary stories is always useful!
 


Stories are shared at every workshop and are a great resource for other Spellbinders.  If you've missed these stories there are links that give you some resources for either the full text of the story, or places that you can purchase or download stories.  I am also sure that the library has many of these books so check that resource too!

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The February workshop activity was a blast!  Ruthmary provided our small groups with suggestions of things to communicate to each other using only gestures.  For instance, if you were given "asking for directions" you then needed to communicate this to your group members by using gestures: physical movements, facial expressions, etc.  No words allowed!  It was a great way to isolate how gestures can enhance your story!  And it was fun!! 




Come to the March workshop!  You will have fun and learn ways to improve your storytelling skills!

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  Ireland is where strange tales begin and happy endings are possible.
Charles Haughey