Finding Your Hero Story
Finding Your Hero Story
I hope your spring is giving you the gift of surprises. Last week was filled with wonderful surprises for me. When I arrived at a retreat center in Chaska, Minnesota, the lake was still frozen over. Amid the beauty of the earth trying to shake off a late spring snow, I could not stop marveling at the images of small waves frozen in the air. Surprise one.
The next morning over breakfast I met Berit. I loved her Estonian accent as she talked about her efforts to introduce books and poems as forms of therapy in her country. She had made the long trek to be with other word-lovers at the National Association of Poetry Therapy Conference. On break, I sipped tea with Alison who was recently hired to take poetry therapy to the homeless in Minneapolis shelters. The surprises kept coming.
On Saturday morning therapist Karen Newcomb and I had the joy of teaching “Finding and Writing Your Hero Story” to a room packed with want-to-make-a-difference counselors, teachers, administrators, nurses, etc. We started with Joseph Campbell’s hero journey and shared models of how to use personal stories to help us find and create our own hero story. (See the prompt below.) The group shared powerful insights and asked deep questions. I came away from the session inspired and recharged — another surprise!
The week ended with a visit from Deborah Alma, a poet from Wales who is as charming as she is funny. Talk about surprises. Years ago, this poet was inspired to purchase and outfit an old ambulance. Deborah decided her dream was to be “the Emergency Poet,” and she has succeeded! She visits events and festivals where she offers consultations inside her ambulance and prescribes poems as cures. Her experiences are heart-warming and makes one believe in the power of our words to heal and change us. Here is a BBC clip of her work.
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-29352405/poetry-on--from-the-emergency-poet
I fully believe we can all chart our own path forward using our words; these words can help us find our own personal hero journey — and that can be a rewarding surprise for all of us!
April, 2018
Interested in more? Check out The Story You Need to Tell
