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.

Blogging From A to Z Challenge

It's March again.  I'm in the midst of helping to produce another Rocky Mountain Storytelling Conference.  And yet I signed up to participate in the Blogging  from A-Z Challenge.  

Call me crazy - but this year I think I can pull it off.

Why?  I have more help in the production arena AND I've settled into my new town - one year, 12 days, 15 hours!  So yeah, I think I'm ready.

Stop by beginning April 1-30 to see what I've written about storytelling, story writing and life in general.

Producing a Storytelling Conference

Two years ago in January, I stepped forward and said, “I’ll do it, if I have help.”  This was during a meeting of the Rocky Mountain Storytelling Board.  I was new.

Ann Harding and John Stansfield enjoy a captivating moment.

What I said “Yes” to was producing the annual conference which is held the end of April or the beginning of May.  I’d never done anything like this before.  I lived 4.5 hours away from where the conference was held.  So I needed help.  Help with deciding who, what, when, where.  The rest of the board stepped in to help.  We pulled it off.

January is a bit late to plan a May conference, but we did it.  And I along with everyone else learned lots.

Things we learned that helped with the 2013 Conference:

Kendall Haven talks about the Power of Story.

• Start early
  • We started planning at our June Retreat.
  • We chose a Featured Teller early.
• Find a venue that is easily located.
  • Close to where people from out of town could stay.
• Network
  • Use social Media
  • Promote at other conferences and events
• Put out the Call for Proposals and have a committee help select the presenters.
  • Because of networking we received proposals from around Colorado as well as out of state.
  • A great group of people stepped forward to help select presenters.
• Learn from the Masters of Production
  • I spoke with others who had produced conferences.

  • 

    A good laugh is always fun!

    Loren Neimi gave me some mentoring time, and I read the on-line PRO-SIG guide.
• Coordinate
  • The Rocky Mountain Storytelling Conference is held in conjunction with the Spellbinders® Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference. 
  • We share the featured teller.  Thus we do a lot of coordinating. 
• Stretch and Grow
  • Don’t be afraid to try something new.
  • Be willing to chuck what doesn’t work and keep what does.

We tried a new venue – many years ago the conference was always held at a hotel.  So we looked for a hotel and found one.  We came up with a workable format.  More people stepped in to help with registration, on-site legwork, providing needed equipment…. 

Workshop on Telling Poetry

The 2013 Conference was better attended than the 2012 Conference.  We more than doubled the number of workshops.  We offered Continuing Education Credit as well as Graduate Credit through Adams State University.  We added a Friday night concert and a Saturday evening Salon where we discussed Story, storytelling and swapped a few stories.  Not everything was perfect by any means, but we were on the right track.

Most of the pictures throughout this blog are from the 2013 Conference. 

The 2014 Rocky Mountain Storytelling Conference is coming up May 2 and 3.  We have interesting workshops planned, and Elizabeth Ellis is our feature Teller.  We’ve worked hard to make this a fun learning experience for Conference goers.  We’ve kept the things that worked – the format, the Concert, the Salon, Credit – both continuing education and graduate.  We’ve tried to correct those things which were not right last year.  We’ve added a Resource Area where members of Rocky Mountain Storytelling will have the ability to sell their CD’s and books.  Kevin Cordi has agreed to stay an extra day and help 15 people Play with Story.  We’d love to see you there!




Elizabeth Ellis and her Frog Prince (or maybe just a frog).

This year’s Conference is being held at the Clayton Learning Center in Denver, CO.  Information about the Clayton Center and the Best Western nearby (which offered us a good deal on lodging) is on Rocky Mountain Storytelling’s web page.

Join us if you can!

Connections and Re-connections

            “Connective tissue forms a mechanical continuum, extending throughout the animal body even into the innermost parts of each cell.” ~Paul Gilley Yin Yoga, a Quiet Practice

            I bought this little book late last spring because my yoga teacher was pursuing other options, like a degree in art.  As I leafed through it, the quote above caught my eye.  “Isn’t that what my life is doing this year?” I thought.   And it is what my life has been up to this whole year!  Not just new connections, but reconnections with my past as well. 

            When, late last spring, I first began thinking of writing a blog about connections and reconnections, I wondered what else could happen this year since I had already made many new connections in the Storytelling World through conferences at LANES and Northlands; a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico with Jim May; and Facebook; reconnected with my storytelling mentor, Norma Livo; and with a tour through the state reconnected with some of the people from my life at Illinois College and in Rochelle, Illinois.

            What else indeed?  With more conferences and storytelling events (NSN, RMS, STNM), I made more connections and reconnections in the Storytelling World.  Connections that reaffirmed for me the importance of Story in my life.  I wrote about that in July.

Fischer Family Reunion

            Family is always and forever important, but when we disperse to the far corners of this large country of ours, it isn’t always easy to remain as connected as we were when young.  By year’s end I visited both my sisters and four of my special cousins, all from the same family. 

 

Friends from the past keep reappearing as if by magic.  My high school class has discovered the power of reconnecting through social media and with the diligence of one woman, with help from a few others, 115 out of 247 people have been “found.”   We’ve changed and grown over the many years that have stretched between high school graduation and social security.  It seems for the better. 

 

Writing and publishing a book (Old China through the Eyes of a Storyteller) has made connections too.  Connections to others who have a desire to know about China, to pass on a legacy to their adoptive children or have made a journey similar to mine. 

Reading Women Who Run with the Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes has reconnected me to my intuitive self.  I found my way back to my real self, the person I was when I was 19 and realized I had walked down some paths where I should not have gone.

What I find fascinating is how doors that I never knew or even suspected were there, are opening, showing the way to growth.  I feel a part of a community as I never have before.  A community connected by life.  So that “mechanical continuum formed by connective tissue that extends into the innermost parts of each cell,” isn’t that what connections/reconnections do for each individual?  I think so…

© Julie Herrera 2012

Giant Steps and Building Community

            Sometimes something happens that shakes the foundation of your life.  When that happens being open to a seismic shift works.

               The newest journey on my River of Life began last July when I picked up a flyer about a Storytelling Workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico, led by storyteller Jim May.  Excitedly I contacted Jim and we kept in touch through the fall and winter.  When it was time to make actual travel plans, I found flights with a six hour wait time in Mexico City or Houston, TX, which threatened to stretch my air travel tolerance to the limit.  Ahhh, a former roommate lived in Houston.  Although we had not seen each other for 43 years, a quick email netted me a reprieve from airport boredom.  Elise and Joel picked us up at the airport.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch accompanied by wonderful conversation.  Hugs, farewells and promises to keep in touch followed.

               Now on with the journey.  Landing in Oaxaca, Mexico, I met Leslie who is a childhood friend of Cathryn Fairlee.  Anticipation at spending a week with one of my heroes seeped into my being.  As promised, this was going to be an epic Hero’s Journey.  Jim and Cathryn warmly greeted us at the door of Casa Colonial, our home for the week.

                Next morning the group assembled and under Jim’s guidance, we began building Our Supportive Community.  A varied group we were - teachers, best friends, storytellers, artists, all in search of a better, more productive self.  With ground rules set in place, each morning we told our stories, wrote in our journals, laughed, cried and made lasting friendships.  We opened up our lives to ourselves and Our Community.  We ended our week with a half hour coaching session involving all the members of our community.  I told the story I planned to tell in Denver the beginning of May. 

              

               Nan Seidler directed our artistic ventures in creating a representation of the week.  Using natural objects, seed pods, dried leaves, fallen flowers, mine was a representation of my life journey entitled, River of Life, with purple (my color) representing the highlights and its opposite color, orange, representing the parts where I faltered.  And those magenta colored flowers represent me as I travel forward.  The ladder is a Spirit Ladder which Nan makes.  She gifted a Spirit Ladder, which she says, “…are reminders that life is a spiritual journey as well as a physical one…,” to each of us.  Mine sits on my dresser to remind me each morning to look where I am going spiritually.

               Growth comes with a cost, but it is also necessary for survival.  My cost came in the form of revelations of experiences I usually don’t share.  Within the Community we had formed, revealing the truth of who I am was a nurturing rather than painful experience.   My gains far outweighed the cost which now seems minimal.  I gained a true confidence in myself as Storyteller, affirmation from people I admired.   This confidence translated into a beautiful World Tales Conference produced by Rocky Mountain Storytelling and recently held in Denver, CO. 

My part in producing the World Tales Conference was in gathering storytellers and workshop presenters.  We were able to broker a deal with Antonio Sacre who told a story about his family’s cultural past and presented his workshop “Finding and Telling Our Own Cultural Stories” in which he refers to Jim’s workshop.  We started the morning with Sacred Stories taking us around the world with tales from almost every continent.  Nervous energy propelled me forward onto the stage as emcee and last teller, telling a story gift given to me in Peru by Edit Nuan͂es.  I was thrilled at how well everything fell into place, except for my dead car battery.  

               The Storytelling Community is one of the most nurturing, loving, friendly communities I have ever had the pleasure of joining.  Thank you to all the storytellers who have touched my life with theirs and made us better.