Thanks to everyone who came out and supported our amazing tellers Thursday night. We had two first-timers as well as a few folks telling who we haven’t seen in a while. 

Gretchen started us off by telling about a time during junior high when the only person who really made her feel seen was Marge, the waitress in her favorite cafe. I can’t count the number of times a waitress has made me feel special when I was feeling anything but. This is the kind of story that reminds us that often we can be the only bright spot in a stranger’s day.

Erica, a first-timer, told a beautiful story about living with bipolar. She did a masterful job pulling us into one of her episodes where none of us knew what was real and what was delusion. It’s been 17 years since that episode and Erica is doing great now. I’m glad she went back in time to tell us this story. Every person living with mental illness is drawing on a tremendous well of strength to get through each day and most of them don’t get credit for it. Thank you, Erica, for sharing that story and showing us what it takes to move from that moment 17 years ago to the life you have now.

Behnaz was next with a story about what happens when you do everything you can to make sure someone doesn’t leave you. This was one of the hardest stories for me to hear because I’ve done this so often in my own life. Every scene in her story felt like it was ripped from my diary. I felt like I was listening to two stories at once, hers and my own. Of course, the ending to both was the same. And like Behnaz, we both survived because of friends.  

Deborah was next with a story about the heartbreak of trying to be a meaningful part of your grandchildren’s lives when you live in Seattle and they live in Israel. It was especially hard for her knowing the other set of grandparents lived nearby and got to see the kids all the time. It took reading to the boys every night during Covid and becoming each character in each story in order to finally connect over continents and time zones. She discovered that by being completely focused in the time she spent on Zoom with them she was able to fully share the parts of herself that the boys really needed. It turns out that when the phone is the only way you have to connect, you can’t just phone it in. 

Henry, the host and producer of the North Seattle Storytelling Meetup, shared a story about how sometimes it’s good to not get what you want. He was offered the job he’d always wanted at the bank he was working at but turned it down to go run his own business. It’s funny how working for a bank is often the last job you have before going off to live your dream. Is there something so soul-crushing about working for a bank that it drives some of us into starting our own seat-of-the-pants self-employment scheme? Maybe. Working in the mortgage loan division of the National Bank of Alaska drove me onstage where bombing in front of two hundred people in a comedy club seemed like a better life.

Tyler, our second first-timer of the night, told a beautiful story about how hard it is to accept help. In the end, he showed us that accepting help is really a gift we give to others. By allowing them to help we honor the connection we have with them. It’s also an act of humility that reminds us that none of us can get through this life on our own.

Chris was next with a story about how not getting what she wanted as a child led her to a life of wanting less and being happy with what she has as an adult. Although Chris is now Enemy #1 of the advertising industry, she’s #1 in my book for living in the present and enjoying what life gives her. I love influencers who don’t realize they’re influencers 🙂

The last two tellers of the night were a first for us. It was Mary and SueAnn, a mother-daughter team who told the story of a doll named Cathy that each of them had as young girls. I can’t even begin to explain how they did it. It was an incredible two-part story that was funny, tense, surprising, and at times absolutely terrifying. If Stephen King got together with Mr. Rogers they would write a story just like this. It was sweet and scary and touching and funny and the best story to end 2021 on. And it was a special treat to see a mom and daughter tell a story together. I hope we can do more of that in the future. Thank you, Mary and SueAnn for showing us how it’s done.

Thanks again to everyone who turned out that night to either tell a story or support the folks who did. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to close out the year than with all of you that night. Special thanks to the FGS’ers who recommended our two new wonderful tellers, Erica and Tyler. I hope they return and tell more stories with us.

Our next show is January 20. The theme is “Stories of things turning out better than expected.” I’ll get the invite out as soon as I can.

Take care,

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Hi Everyone,

I’m looking forward to seeing you on Zoom this Thursday.

We still have spots available so send me an email between now and Thursday if you’d like to tell a story.

Below is the Zoom info. See you soon 🙂

Paul

Topic: FGS: Making the Best of It- Stories of not getting what you want

Time: Dec 16, 2021 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85470548189?pwd=YUI3S096OS83UnVValk5cm1nU2ZnQT09

Meeting ID: 854 7054 8189

Passcode: 574242

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Meeting ID: 854 7054 8189

Passcode: 574242

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kznXjsxKh

I suppose I could have chosen this theme for any month since Covid hit. It feels like the last 20 months have been a real test in how to deal with not getting what I want. If anyone needs any bright sides, upsides, plus sides, sunny sides, rays of hope, silver linings, or glasses half-full I have a bunch over here I’m not using.

Normally, I do pretty well with not getting what I want because I’ve had a lot of experience in that area. And I’m sure the gratitude fairy will knock on my door anytime now and remind me that I have the power to dig one of those silver linings out of the closet any time I want.

But right now I’d love to hear about a time when you didn’t get what you wanted. It doesn’t have to be during Covid. It could be from any time in the rich pageant that’s been your life. 

What were you hoping for that didn’t happen? Was it love? Money? Work? A cure for male pattern baldness? What happened and how did you deal with it? I think we’d all love to hear that kind of story right now. 

Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. If your story goes long, someone else who practiced for weeks might not get a chance to tell. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email or give me a call if you have any questions about that.

The best advice I ever got on coming up with a story is to start with your last line and work backward (thanks The Moth!) If you know where you want to end up, it’s easier to figure out what other moments fit and don’t fit in the story.

Rules and guidelines for telling at FGS are below:

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Workshops are a great way to get feedback on a story you’re working on. Here is one I highly recommend:  https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop/

I’m also happy to help people with their stories. Send me an email and we can set up a phone call. (Meetup doesn’t always like the “reply” feature so it’s best to start a new email and send it to me directly at freshgroundstories@gmail.com) 

If you like to work alone, this is the best book I’ve ever seen on personal storytelling:

https://www.amazon.com/Storyworthy-Engage-Persuade-Through-Storytelling/dp/B07GT7BMJV/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=matthew+dicks&qid=1582788172&sr=8-1

We’ll be on Zoom again unless the indoor mask mandate changes. Now is a great time for our out-of-town tellers to share more stories with us.

I’ll send out the Zoom link to everyone on the Monday before the show which is December 13.

I hope to see a bunch of you on the 16th!

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Hi Everyone,

The folks at https://onemind.org/ are looking to talk to someone who has a personal story about depression that’s holiday-focused. It could also be about Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

They’re taping their webcast next Thursday, December 2, so they need someone ASAP. Email me directly at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com and I’ll connect you to them.

One Mind included me in a documentary earlier this year and I was just on a webcast with them a couple weeks ago. They’re good people doing good work. You can feel good about sharing your story with them.

Here’s more info about them that I copied from their website.

“One Mind accelerates brain health research and advocacy to enable all individuals with mental health conditions to build healthy, productive lives. Inspired by our founders’ lived experience, we work from science to services to society to drive global, collaborative action.”

Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll put you in touch with them.

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Thank you all for a great show last Thursday. On Saturday we only had one teller signed up but by showtime we had nine! As always, we learned a lot from the stories we heard.

Thank you Silvana for teaching us what can happen when you find out that people really do care about you. There are our biological families and there are what Father Gregory Boyle calls our logical families. Silvana found her logical family as an 18-year-old and it changed her life.

Thank you Deborah for teaching us what can happen when we get our of our own head for a minute. Deborah broke her diet and her moratorium on baking for Uncle Louie who was slowly dying in an assisted living facility. When Louie opened that tin and the aroma of those cookies wafted out into the room, he went right back in time to all those holidays he spent with their big Italian family back east. Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to remind them of all the love they’ve had in their life even if it only lasts for a cookie.

Thank you Colleen for showing us how important it is to find one place in this world where you can relax. For Colleen, this happened to be falling out of a the sky strapped to another woman with a parachute. Some of us buy stress balls and some of us jump out of planes at 13,500 feet. That’s right. One person’s soft, warm bubble bath can be another person’s screaming night terror. Of course, what Colleen really taught us was that sometimes you have to do something others won’t in order to get what you need.

Thank you Gretchen for showing us how important it is to know why we make the choices we do. Sometimes the reason we think we’re doing something isn’t the real reason we’re doing it. And if we don’t truly understand why we’re doing something is it really a choice? I love the change in Gretchen’s voice at the end of her story. It was as though her heart took over the telling and the room shrunk down to just me and her. That’s what stories can do for us. They can make us feel they’re here just for us.

Thank you Tonya for showing us that with enough love and support you can change your life and end up in a better place than you ever imagined. Tonya and her husband changed their minds about having a child and it led the to a deeper love than they thought possible. What we want when we’re young is usually different from what we want when we’re older. It makes sense to change your mind about things when you yourself have changed.

Thank you Chris for showing us that compelling stories can be told about the smallest of things. Chris’s entire story was about putting together a 2,542 piece sumo wrestling jigsaw puzzle. How did she make us care about a jigsaw puzzle? She let us in on her inner dialogue. We learned how she felt about spilling tea on it and watching all the color on three pieces disappear. We learned how she found out that she could get replacement pieces but only if she lived in Japan. Most of all we learned how she felt about all her plans and dreams for 2020 being reduced to completing a puzzle. Chris is a master of telling big stories about small things. We can all learn a lot from her.

Thank you Carmen, a first-timer, for showing us that sometimes it’s good to say yes to strangers and experiences you’d normally say no to. One summer in Seattle she jumped on a rickety boat with a bunch of strangers and didn’t end up on the front page of the Seattle Times. She had a magical afternoon that gave her hope that the new life she was starting was going to be a good one. Carmen’s story made me wonder how often I only think of times that turned out bad. How much happier would I be if I focused more on the times when I took a chance and things turned out good?

Thank you Kristen, another first-timer, who told a story of failing a weapons test in the navy and how it led to not becoming the governor of Alabama. Kristen, I too will never become the governor or Alabama so you are in good company. More importantly, she showed us how important it is that what you want in life is really what you want in life. Her last line was so perfect I want to share it with you here. “I would no longer spend my life failing at other people’s dreams.” I’m glad Kristen found that out sooner than I did.

Our final teller of the night was Dave. Thank you Dave for showing us how stories of frustrating times can bring joy years later. I’ve heard Dave tell lots of stories but I’ve never seen him smile and laugh as much as when he told this one. It was about the time his six-year-old daughter talked him into letting her get a couple Guinea pigs which of course ended up running loose in the house. If we had been there years ago when he was getting out the power tools to dismantle a cupboard to get at those Guinea pigs, we probably wouldn’t have seen him laughing. But as he told the story about all the things he had to do to capture these Guinea pigs we could see the joy spreading throughout his body. What was once a pain in the butt was now a reason to laugh and reminisce. This is the power of stories. Thank you Dave for reminding us that once you put life in a story it can become whatever you need it to be.

Special thanks to all the people who showed up and supported the storytellers. Your laughter, applause,and chat room love mean a lot to me and everyone who walks up to the mic. It’s because of you that we’re able to share these stories.

Our next show is December 16th. The theme is “Not getting what you want.” I hope 8-10 of you have not gotten what you want at least once in life and would love to tell us about it 🙂

In the meantime, there are a couple of things I want to let you know about.

Dave’s monthly workshop is coming up on Dec 5. RSVP if you have a story you’re working on and would like some feedback.

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop/events/281976359/

Also, Tonya let us know that the next Ignite Seattle is coming up on February 17th. Ignite is a great place to learn to give short, compelling talks using slides. They provide lots of coaching and their shows are always excellent. At least a couple of FGS’ers have given Ignite talks and they both had great experiences. Check them out!

https://igniteseattle.com/

I’ll get the invite for the December show out as soon as I can.

Email me directly at freshgroundstories@gmail.com if you have any questions or want help on a story.
(I just learned last week that replying to my emails through the Meetup system doesn’t work and I never receive it.)

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com