The Deeper Songs of Ourselves

By the time my November Re-Story Circles come around, my women’s retreat “Prinderella and the Cince and the Two Sisty Uglers: Getting to Know Our Many Selves” will be over. I’m wondering if I’ll know myself (make that selves) any better by then.

What I do know is that I will have taken a weekend to be with other like-minded women who made a choice to: get away, relax, rest, write, share their stories, have some fun and most importantly, listen to themselves. We will have spent time together in Circle, participating in both deep conversation and laughter, sharing in both listening and being heard. We will also have taken time to listen to ourselves.

Terri St. Cloud (www.bonesigharts.com) eloquently speaks to this in her poem “under the trees”…

“it had been a lifetime for others –
and now she wanted to know herself.
sitting under the trees,
she asked herself how she was feeling
and she began to really listen.”

Time to listen, time to focus, can be a rare commodity these days. As UT journalism professor Tracy Dahlby puts it, “If you’re like me, you’re having a harder time watching a three-minute news video these days without caving into the urge to check your email or text messages at least once. Sustainable focus in steep decline…”

He goes on to say, “Brain researchers suggest we may be jeopardizing the deeper songs of ourselves because when we process more data at faster speeds, our slower, more methodical neural pathways lose out.” (The Human Need for Storytelling in a Digital Age) http://www.statesman.com/opinion/insight/ut-professor-on-the-human-need-for-storytelling-1890165.html

I want to be in touch with the deeper songs of myself and that’s no easy task. The question Dahlby raises is how can we “balance out the excitement that social media’s electric connections bring with the deeper human currents that our storytelling traditions foster?”

He suggests why not “…revive our ancient habit of telling stories face to face in a circle of kindred spirits.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

So join us for a November Re-Story Circle – see the Re-Story Circles tab for information and to register. One simple evening, to take time to be in meaningful dialogue with yourself and with others. You might just get in touch with those deeper songs in yourself you’ve been longing to sing.