Thanks to everyone who came out to the show Thursday. We had a great bunch of stories and we even ended on time! As always we learned some important stuff.

Jake showed us that hummingbirds don’t always get the tsunami warning.

Elliot told the sweetest story ever of getting CARE packages from his favorite writer while he was in Afghanistan. I don’t know what you put in your fan letters, Elliot, but could I talk you into writing Tom Robbins or Sherman Alexie? I’d love to have them come to the show one day. Clearly you have some strange power over best-selling authors.

The weirdest and most exciting thing we learned is that Seattle has some very intuitive bus riders. If I ever get on the 28 to Green Lake and the guy across the aisle looks at me and says, “Your anxiety is pinching your soul!” I am going to stay on that bus until he tells me what he means. Lynn, you have to tell me what route that was. I have questions and I can’t afford therapy right now.

One of the most touching stories of the night was from Obie. He told the beautiful story of traveling alone through Laos and meeting an old man who lived through the American bombing of his country 30 years earlier. Obie, thank you for reminding us that if you’re willing to open your heart human beings can come together no matter what happened in the past. That story should be told in every town from here to the U.N.

Thanks to everyone who go onstage that night and shared a story: Lynn, Obie, Elliot, David, Jake, Chris, Sumit, Em, Sea, Nic, and Cavan. Special thanks to our two first-timers, Nic and Sumit. Sumit, I let you sneak onstage with a poem that night but next time you gotta bring a story, ok? I know you have one in you. I could tell from your poem that you probably a lot of stories in there. We would love to hear them.

Before I let you go I want to remind of a great little music and storytelling show at the Jewelbox this Sunday, March 6 at 7pm. It has 5 tellers (I’ll be hosting) from our show and 3 musicians playing music between the stories. It’s called Words and Music and it’s the only show I know of that has this combination of song and story. Here’s the link for more info:

http://www.seattlewordsnmusic.com/

The recording from last week’s show came out fine so I can give each of the storytellers a copy of their performance if they want it. I only give them to the people who told a story and it’s only the audio of their own story. Most performers don’t want their personal stories online so that’s why I only give copies to the people who told them.

If anyone wants to to tell a story but is a little nervous about how to get a story in shape for the stage, Bill Bernat runs a wonderful monthly workshop in Ravenna. It’s free and friendly and all you need to do is bring a story to work on. Here’s the link for more info:

It’s Bill’s workshop so if you have any questions email him through the meetup site.

Next month’s theme is Surprises. I’ll get the official invite out in a few days but I wanted to let you know what it was so you can start thinking of a story.

I hope to see some of you this Sunday at the Jewelbox!

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com