I am filled with gratitude for mountains that surround this valley, holding us safely inside - offering inspirational sunsets and rises, a view of the changing seasons, a place to climb and explore, a soft curving edge to entice and comfort.

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Practice:

Find a small square of colorful paper. You can use a 2"x 2" sheet of origami paper, a gum wrapper, or anything else that you have lying around. On the backside, write down one thing for which you are utterly grateful today. It can be simple, but it must be specific to this moment. When you have written down the item for which you are grateful, fold the paper into a specific shape. If you know how, fold it into an origami crane. Whatever you can conjure -  a paper hat, boat, doll, box, or even a simple double-folded triangle - create that shape. When you have done this practice repeatedly, you will end up with a number of these folded paper items. These gratitude shapes can be strung into a "senbatsuru" (Japanese strings of a thousand origami cranes), a mobile, or simply put into a box or basket. Seeing how they multiply over time increases gratitude.

What stories of thankfulness do your accumulations of gratitude speak?

Some of us are really good at telling colorful and imaginative 'stories.' Sometimes in the daily renderings, though, they are not imbued with transcendent soulfulness - that aspect of the story that is the vulnerable meaning, texture, vibrancy of that story for the individual who shares it. I like to use the word "Story," capitalized, to refer to this spiritual, even archetypal, aspect of a person's life, as she understands it most richly through her Stories.

• A "Story" speaks to the truth of a person's interconnection with all beings.
• A "Story" is complex and can have many contradictions in "facts."
• A "Story" is unbiased; it tells the human's soulful experience as it is, for that person and for all people, at that time and for all times.
• A "Story" is emergent and fluid.
• A "Story" is the impetus for transformative change in a person's life.
• A "Story" transcends the mundane.

We are all storytellers. Yet some of us are Storytellers, getting to the crux of the matter. A Story might be about a person's experience of a profound loss (tragic accident, death of a loved one, sudden unemployment); about a spiritual experience that changed him; or about a battle with a disease. This Story does not just relay "facts," those actual events and feelings that occurred in some fairly predictable way. The Story, too, is much more than a simple, subjective rendition of an occurrence.

A Story reaches into - and comes from - the depths of a person; it is immutable. By 'immutable,' I do not just mean impervious to change. What I am saying is that the Story is completely and honestly True in the moment and conditions of its telling. It comes from the soul-place (heart, spirituality, intuition, creative space). As such, it can alter its course in a person's life (and thus, alter the course of the Storyteller's life). A Story is less about what happened (on the outside) and more about what is occurring on the inside, even as the Story is being told. It is the experience of a Story that matters most, not just the storylines that make it something conveyable.

Stories never end. A Story has a life and voice of its own, sometimes not rendered wholly unto the storyteller until the moment it comes to life in his words and expressions. Sometimes a Storyteller needs help, a little "oiling of the spiritual cogs," to get the movement and flow of the Truest Thing to come forth. This can be done via writing.

I paid careful attention when a client told me that he is curious about which parts of his story will end up feeling vital and alive at the end of the writing and editing process. He knows that to write is to discover. This person feels deeply in his heart that something is shifting within, and that his Story - one he knows well but has not composed in writing - will become birthed anew in the way he puts words on the page. I, too, am moved:  by his Story, his commitment, and his courage.

This client is no stranger to the story that has beckoned for more than four decades. This new writer is telling an ancient and future Story - old for him, and connected for all time to others. It is poignant. Compelling. This person's life-longing to gingerly place his story into the hands of the waiting world has come to fruition. Earlier this year as he entered his seventh decade of life, this man earnestly surrendered to the writing process, under the compassionate guidance of the TEALarbor stories mentor. He knows that the reason he writes now is because he can no longer deny his Story. Its call to be heard has risen up, looked him in the eye, and spoken. "It is time!" He has fully stepped into (t)his Story.

The client knows that we will shape the story after it is drafted, so that the heart and truth of the Story shine through.

Regardless of whether a person is writing a memoir, children's story, research paper, or business proposal, all writing is put into a story form. For example, the "story" for a graduate student takes shape in the thesis or dissertation; this document is the culmination of the student's research and study written in the 'story format' appropriate for academia. A resumé is another example of a story format; a CV (curriculum vitae) or resumé is the story about who one is professionally - education, professional accomplishments, career path, civic engagement. The form helps to hold and shepherd the Story, to convey it in a way that the intended audience can hear it.

TEALarbor stories offers professional editing services to a host of institutions, organizations and individuals and in multifarious genres. I am on-call as an editor of scholarly documents for a growing number of academic institutions nationwide.

Further, I consider no project too small for the scope of TEALarbor stories, including:

• CV creation or revision
• cover letters
• newsletters
• press releases
• business memos
• applications
• special occasion notes

Likewise, no project is too extensive. I have helped clients with:

• book manuscripts
• dissertations and theses
• compilations of essays
• website content

Many people who seek TEALarbor stories' editing services have medium length documents (articles, chapters, short stories) that they have drafted or pieced together and which need a particular type of editing.

Finally, I look at documents at any stage of the writing process from heavy content editing on early drafts to final proofreading or light editing.

To learn how TEALarbor stories can help you with your specific editing needs, please send an email to: tealarborstories@gmail.com.