Z is for Zip-piddy-do-da!

Zip-piddy-do-da!  Finished Done I did it!  I finished the A-Z Blogging Challenge.  I've been blogging sporadically for some time using random thoughts that sorta, kinda had something to do with storytelling. This month of daily blogging has taught me a number of things about blogging.

·       Blogs don’t have to be long.

·       There’s a lot to write about storytelling.

·       Pictures count.

·       Write from the heart.

·       Tell a story of some sort within the blog.

·       I’m pretty sure I can do this at least twice a month now.

I have to credit my friend and “alter-ego,” Pam Faro with getting me to do this challenge.  She did it last year in order to see if she could.  And she did.  And so I took on the challenge even though April is typically a very busy month for me.

I wrote a week’s worth of blogs in March just to get myself started.  I limited my word count to fewer than 300 (most of the time) which is hard for a wordy person to do.  I chose my daily subjects.  After looking at the daily subjects I chose the theme “It’s All about Story.”   As I wrote pictures came.  I became more familiar with Blogspot and found it easier to use as I became accustomed to the format.

So for the ending a very short story, one from my book, Old China through the Eyes of a Storyteller - “The Snipe and the Mussel,”  a 2300 year old fable about cooperation.

A Snipe found a Clam on the beach and decided to eat it for lunch.  But the Clam would have none of it and clamped down hard on the Snipe’s long beak.  They pulled and tugged but neither could get away from the other. 

The Snipe, through his nose, told the Clam, “If you don’t let go there will be a dead clam on the beach tomorrow.”

To which the Clam retorted, through clenched shell, “If I don’t let go there will be a dead Snipe on the beach tomorrow too.”

They pulled and tugged but neither could get away from the other.  Then along came an unlucky fisherman who saw the tugging and pulling.  He laughed, calling them both bulls (stubborn).  Then had snipe and clam stew for dinner.

Y is for Young

Young children – meaning babyhood through toddlerhood – love to be told stories.  Of course the stories have to be short, involve things they know about and perhaps even involve lap sitting.  All these things I learned from the youngest among us.

Two years ago while attending a meeting with educators where Colorado's Lt Governor, Joe Garcia  was speaking (his two pet projects are Early Childhood Education and Higher Education), I was given three precious minutes to explain why storytelling is important in Early Childhood Education.  I spoke with storytellers who work with the youngest children and mapped out a plan for my three minute speech which went well. 

But not everything goes according to plan.  While the Lt Governor did not jump on the “Band Wagon,” the director of the San Luis Valley Early Childhood Education Council did.  The upshot being that I was to teach a college class in Storytelling for Early Childhood Educators.  The class was full.  The class was fun.  The instructor learned a lot.  And so did the students.

One thing we addressed was the Vocabulary Gap where we centered our discussion on the merits of storytelling in teaching vocabulary.  (More Vocabulary Gap websites here.)  It’s the second best way, you know, following closely on the heels of conversation to teach vocabulary.  It’s the eye contact, the closeness, the feeling of “I’m the one being paid attention to!”

So tell stores to the little ones in your life.  As they grow older they may ask you, as my grandsons ask me, “Read us a story from your head, Grandma.” or "Let's make up stories together!"

X is for X-traordinary

I know, I know some would call this cheating, but I really want to write about the extraordinary, okay?

Webster defines the prefix “extra” as “beyond” what the root word means.  So beyond ordinary.  Better than ordinary.  Most of the time ordinary is just fine, but sometimes, sometimes happenings come along that are so much more.  These happenings for me are like jewels, sparkling where you least expect them.

Love is one of those extraordinary happenings.  That’s Love with a capital ‘L’ not lust, not like, not “you’re fun to be with.”  I wrote earlier about unconditional love.  That’s the kind of love I’m talking about here.

I've experienced unconditional love in several ways.  From my parents, of course, they, as most parents do, loved their children no matter what we did.  For my children because I, as a parent and grandparent, love my children and grandchildren no matter what they do.

I believe in the Divine and the unconditional love that comes to all of us from our Great Creator who, like a parent loves us no matter what we do.  My daughter-in-law lent me a book to read titled When God Winks: How the Power of Coincidence Guides Your Life by Squire Rushnell.  This small volume speaks to how we can use the “untapped power of coincidence to vastly improve our lives.”

Then there’s the unconditional love or a partner.  I believe I've experienced this kind of love twice.  Once was many years ago when I was in high school.  The feelings I had lingered long past the time the relationship ended.  I thought perhaps the relationship might be rekindled when God winked almost three years ago.  But I’m not so good with long distance relationships.  But we are in touch and the friendship is there.

The other time began about a year ago when God winked again.  After shaky starts and stops, this time has blossomed into a real partnership of unconditional love.  I am so glad it’s finally my turn to experience the X-traordinary!  This story is still unfolding just as the path on the heart to the left keeps going.

V is for Variety

“Variety is the spice of life.”  William Cowper’s poem “The Task” (1785) contains that line.  And many times variety is the spice of life, until it becomes overwhelming because you may have tried too many different kinds of experiences or your life is too diverse.

 

What is too much for one may be extremely satisfying to another.  When I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at what is happening in my life, I step back and look at how I arrived at this impasse.  Usually it is my own doing since I have a tendency to say “Yes” more often than “No.”  Case in point: this month of April, 2015.

The first half of the month was doable – I was wearing the normal hats that I do quite often which I’m used to.  Some of my “normal” hats include Dance Partner, Radio Show Host, Rocky Mountain Storytelling Board Member, Program Director for the RMS Conference (May 1 & 2), Chef, Seamstress, Walker, and I added Blogger to that list by joining the A-Z Blogging Challenge.   

It looked like the latter half would be doable as well until I got a phone call and a text.  The first was an invitation to travel to Branson, CO.  (Yes, you read that right – Branson, CO.)  The school (50 students K-12) was having a Literacy Night and needed a speaker.  Since I am a rural area dweller and know first-hand how hard it is to get good people to come a distance, I said, “Yes.”  Storyteller Hat

Then my daughter-in-law texted me with an emergency “Grandma Request” – could I come up and take care of the boys for the end of the week?  Of course I said, “Yes!”  Grandma Hat

So for the past two weeks I have put a number of miles on my car, seen beautiful scenery and animals, traveled some paved back roads and added to my to-do list.  At least I’ve kept myself out of trouble and the weather cooperated.  I have two more weeks of wearing either my Storyteller Hat or my Grandma Hat almost non-stop and then …  Well, we’ll see what I say May 11.

W is for Witches

Witches?  Who are they really?  Why do they have such a bad reputation?  Do they really eat little children? 

Today we will look at one stereotypical witch – Baba Yaga.  Baba Yaga lives in the forests of Russia.  Her home is a hut standing on chicken feet which kneel down when she is home making it easy for her to exit and enter her home, and stand up when she is gone so that no one else can enter.  The hut has the ability to turn 360⁰ in order to welcome her home.  She has a cat and a dog.  Her legs are bony, her teeth are iron.  Supposedly she eats little children.  She flies about in a magic mortar which she steers with the pestle.  She sweeps her tracks away with her broom.  So do NOT venture out into the forest alone!

Where did my knowledge of Baba Yaga come from?  Jack and Jill magazine.  Back in the 1950’s, the children’s magazine ran a series on Baba Yaga which my mother read to my sisters and me.  I was so fascinated by all the magical things that Baba Yaga had in her life, they have stuck with me all these years.

I used this knowledge when I was a librarian.  We were not allowed to tell witch stories for Halloween; so I got around that by using two books – one with the fourth graders and one with the fifth graders to prove the need for research even when writing and illustrating picture books.

The Widow’s Broom by Chris Van Allsburg was my choice for the fourth graders.  We briefly discussed the witch trials in Salem as background for the story.  I love Van Allsburg’s wordsmithing.  If you've never read any of his books, do; they’re worth the effort.

Eric Kimmel’s Baba Yaga was my choice for the fifth graders.  Megan Lloyd is the illustrator of this book.  Ms Lloyd, I’m afraid, did not do her research before making her illustrations.  As you can see from the cover of the book, Baba Yaga is flying on her broom and is perched precariously on a small mortar while waving the pestle in her hand.  And, yes, she‘s pretty high off the ground.  Yet when faced with a stream and a grove of trees she cannot fly over them.  Inconsistencies.  The house on chicken legs has steps leading into it and therefore cannot kneel nor turn in any direction without tearing them off.

I have a Russian friend who is going to give me more insight into the story of Baba Yaga.  And I love Patricia Polacco’s version of Babuska Baba Yaga. 

Witches are not all bad.  Sometimes they just know more, and are more in touch with nature than others; and long ago that was considered, by some men, to be a bad thing.  In some places that is true today.

U is for Unconditional Love

“If you wilt but stay as beautiful as you are today. I will love you forever,” the king told his queen. 

“And who shall judge my beauty?” she inquired of the king.

“Why I shall, of course,” was the reply.

“Will your standards for beauty change as you age?” she asked coquettishly.

“No!” he thundered.

And she wondered if the rewards of queenship were worth what lay ahead.

That passage is not from any story I am familiar with, but it is said in a variety of situations and with a variety of words day after day after day.

Unconditional love does not use the word “If”.  Near on 60 years ago there was a man who showed me what unconditional love for a woman looked like.  My grandparents were making one of their rare visits to our home.  Both Grandma and Grandpa were in the living room with me when Grandma got up and left to go help my mom in the kitchen.  As she left the room, Grandpa turned to me and said, “There goes the most beautiful woman in the world!”

I’d always thought of my grandparents as old, although in the little story above they were probably around the age I am now (and of course I’m not old!).  To my young eyes Grandma did not have any of the attributes the magazine ads and TV touted as beautiful, but in Grandpa’s eyes she was and always had been from the moment he met her, the most beautiful woman in the world.

Their love story was just as beautiful.  They’d never told it to their children, but one winter afternoon in the late 1960’s when two of my cousins and I were exploring the attic with them, the Romantic (Grandpa) told us the story.  We sat still, drinking in the tale we’d never heard before and loving every detail.  It was so much better than the story we’d been hearing all our lives – “I couldn’t teach her math so I had to marry her.”  He told about the “pursuit,” the proposal, the acceptance and the unconditional love.  Ahhhh, yes, that special love that does not fade.  It’s not found by everyone, but when it comes, grab hold with both hands and toss the word “if” from your vocabulary!

T is for Temptation

Janet ventured out one day knowing full well that she was not supposed to go anywhere near Carterhaugh.  She found herself there anyway perhaps because it is tempting to go where one has been forbidden to go.  It was tempting to pluck a sweet smelling rose; so she did.  The young man who appeared tempted her to walk with him.

So many temptations all in one afternoon.  And if you know the story of Janet and Tam Lin (or the ballad), you know not only how tempted she was, but also that he was tempted as well.  Janet was different from the other lassies who made their way either through knowledge or fate to Carterhaugh.  She was a young woman who knew her mind.  She was more curious than afraid.  Janet went of her own free will into the forest with Tam Lin.

Janet proved to be brave when she freed Tam Lin from the faerie spell.  And because she yielded to temptation, she found something so precious she was willing to give her own life to save his.

Temptation finds us all at various points in our lives.  We must judge the merits of the temptation before giving in to it.  Will it give satisfaction for a moment or a life-time?  Is it fleeting like the taste of chocolate cake or life changing as in the case of True Love?  Only we can decide for ourselves, and thus our free will.

Now back to the story.  Janet saved Tam Lin’s life and did not lose her own although she risked it.  Their child had two loving parents because of Janet’s bravery.  Carterhaugh was returned to its rightful heirs, and all turned out for the best.  So one might say with all that temptation going ‘round, a life was saved and two lives were changed and a third life begun and the Fairy Queen lost because of True Love. 

Not all temptations turn out so well, but in Fairy Tales, true love finds its own and proves to have a pull far harder to resist than chocolate cake at midnight.