Denise's blog

For me there are often times of ebb and flow during a project. Like everything, it is a cycle. The passion is aroused, sated and again aroused. I have learned not to judge these ebb times as harshly as I used to.
 
I first learned from Carolyn Myss that this empty space between flows is valuable and necessary. She calls it the fertile void. Making a friend of the fertile void, even greeting this time with welcome when it comes, is simply relaxing into the reality of life. Stress is what happens when we don’t agree with the reality of life!
 

StoryTelling for Life, Holistic Use of Story for Education, Healing and Helping, Cultural Connections and Community Building – Book Blog
 

Well, a lot has happened since I last sat down to write in this blog. Shortly after I last wrote, I left for the Banff Centre where I was attending a vocal intensive. I had attended the same intensive last year and really got a lot out of it and I was hoping for more of the same.
 
There was a new teacher and new participants and so of course, nothing was the same. We did have Lyz Jaakola, a mixed Ojibwe woman with great vocal and teaching skills return from the year before, which was super. I learned a lot about diaphragmatic breathing for her last year and was looking forward to more.
 

I am a member of the Canadian Association for Professional Speakers, (CAPS). I joined in 2005 because I wanted to improve my speaking skills and grow my business as a speaker, and workshop and meeting facilitator. My business at that time was about 80% storytelling for youth in schools and libraries, and the rest was speaking and facilitating for education, health and wellness, and aboriginal events and conferences. I wanted to do more of the professional development work because I saw that as a place to express my message and to grow.
 
At CAPS we have monthly professional development meetings with engaging and challenging speakers, -some of the best in the world. At out last meeting we covered the topic of Mentoring. We were challenged to acknowledge the people that have mentored us. As I pondered that, it immediately shifted into the framework of the book.
 

My next step was to begin to bring together all the writing I have done on the chosen storytelling chapters over the years. I looked through all my workshop and seminar handouts and notes for the activities and processes that I consider to have become my best practices. I dug through all my blog entries, articles and stories for relevant ideas and content. I looked through the various abstracts and papers I had composed for academic presentations and pulled them apart for what belongs here and then I added all that to the chapters in my binder, too.
 
Now I know what to do with all that stuff I’ve been saving in so many different forms, for so long. And BONUS … my office is getting more organized too!
 

My last blog was in January 2010. I had come to a realization that I am waiting for some kind of permission before I can do the things I want to in my life. My 2010 resolution was to really look at my life and uncover the places I feel poor and give myself permission to do something about it.
  
What I have decided to do about it, is to finally settle down and write the book that I have been dancing around for a few years. I have written articles, stories and short e-books but I have never put it all together before, and now I have begun.
 
This is my storytelling book. The book where I finally have a deeper look at what I have been up to for the last 25 years and sift through it for things that I think could be valuable to others. As I sorted, things started landing in piles and I began to put my book into its first tangible form.
 

I recently returned from spending a week with my Dad as he moved from hospital to hospital, ending up in a long term care facility. He has been avoiding moving out of his apartment and into a place that has a higher level of care. He is an independent old cuss and has stayed on his own a thousand miles from his closest child for the last 10 years.
 
His is an amazing story. He was born in Smackover, Arkansas in 1925. This was the depression era and they were a poor farming family, with some Cherokee on both sides. Dad doesn’t speak that much about his childhood. I remember a story about his brothers hanging him up on a coat hook when they were supposed to be taking care of him. There was also the one we heard when the “Christmas oranges’ came out each year about how happy he was to have the paper from the oranges because it was much better in the outhouse that the Sears Roebuck catalogue.
 

A question that I am often asked by clients is one that I have often asked myself and I think that it's an important one.
 
How do I measure my personal growth? How do I know when all the workshops and trainings and seminars and sessions I've been doing are working?
 
What I have found to be the most important measuring stick is trust.
 
I compare developing trust to a deep lake that is beginning to freeze over in the winter. When the weather first gets cold, you discover that you can walk easily on the mud that used to suck at your boots. Then the waters edge grows firm enough to support you.
 
That is what it is like when you begin to trust that your place in this world is secure and you learn that you are responsible for how you experience whatever occurs to you. You may notice that suddenly you are easily doing something that would have been a real stretch last year.
 
You begin to notice that certain fears that dictated your life last year are gone. Certain people that used to push your buttons can’t even find them anymore. You have grown. Your trust has grown. And so you step out a little further onto the ice. Yes, this world is here to support you, however you choose.
 
That support is always there. We are only able to step out onto the ice as far as our trust will carry us. Remember also that even though you are only able to step out so far, that the ice is also freezing in from all around the lake. That is the universe reaching out for you!
 
TRUST -To Rely Upon Sprit Totally!
-and because we ARE Spirit, this can also be
TRUST - To Rely Upon Self Totally!  

Swan’s Song – From The Fertile Void!
March 22, 2009
 
Spring has sprung! Here in Alberta Canada, it will still be a while before the grass is riz. However with global warming on the way – we may start seeing longer summers. Gotta do the “glass half full” thing when I can!
 
I have been deep in my processes for the many weeks since my last post. I had a slight fall in Jamaica, back when we were on the cruise, and I “took on” a painful hip for a couple months. As a psychosomatic therapist it was a feast for me, as it was clear that I hadn’t done enough damage from the fall to result in such a chronic issue. Psychosomatically, the hips are in the sacral, which is the area of intuition, sensuality, sexuality and creativity. All the yummy second Chakra stuff! Also being that the pain was in the joint it was about flexibility and moving forward as well. My hip was in extreme pain anytime I tried to sit. Standing, walking and lying down were all fine.  I could do anything other than what I had to do –sit down and get to work on my business!
 

What a busy, happening place Montego Bay, Jamaica is! Cars honking, cabs and shuttles dashing around, buses squeaking by - and they drive on the "other" side of the road! Our shuttle driver (thank God!) held our hands as we crossed the street and took us into the internet cafe. He's my hero! Also...we are right across the street from Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville! I love his music and hope to go in and get some of his CD's that I've been looking for. -If we can get back across the street!

Hello!
Yesterday we cruised the Panama Canal and had many cool opportunites to watch the locks operate. What an engineering marvel! As we cruised the lakes between the two sets of locks we could see villages with thatched huts tucked away on the islands. An aside to Monica and Tom - there were no "For Sale" signs on them, maybe you could build your own hut? There was a local expert that came on board to tell us some very interesting stories and facts about the buidling of the canal as we cruised through.