A Woman's Essential Survival Gear for "Eternal Adventure-ness":

Ladies,

I wanted to apologize for my quick exit today! Illness was sudden and unexplainable. Don't worry about me, I am perfectly fine now, just a stuffy nose. (Partly why I included the TP in the picture!) Anyway, this is my modified version of the Eternal Happiness Recipe: A Woman's Essential Survival Gear. I am hoping to actually take this on an adventure somewhere. Possibly Latin America--most likely Forest Grove!
Wish I could have heard your stories today!

See you Tuesday,

-Whitney

A Woman's Essential Survival Gear for "Eternal Adventure-ness":

• One stout backpack: able to carry essential belongings.
• Una mapa: created or bought, probably both.
• Journal: for recording "Life"
• Talisman for a sense of security and connectivity.
• Photos to remind you from whence you came.
• A snack in case you get hungry + fork you might share some meals.
• Change of clothes, swimsuit, flops, bandana
• Agua/tequila/soda bottle
• TP-a luxury, but nice to have :)
• Mascara, tampax, lotion (more luxuries!)
• Deode, Ibuprofen, band-aids, condoms-cause you never know!
• AND since you never know: Pepper-spray
• Empty envelopes for letters
• A favorite dog-eared book
• The best pair of $2 sunglasses
• A buck to call home
• And one wool blanket for chilly nights.

_________________________

P.S. My intentions are growing! :) (And yes that is a plastic Jesus, he came in my band-aid box).

Recipe for Eternal Happiness

Recipe: Baked Cardamom Pears

6-8 pears, Bartlett or Bosc
1/4 c. sweetener (sugar...maple syrup...etc)
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp ground cardamom

butter, butter substitute or coconut oil

Set oven to 350 degrees. Halve pears and place them face down on a greased baking sheet or pan. Mix vanilla, cardamom and sugar and sprinkle over pears. Dot pears with a teaspoon of butter or coconut oil. Bake until ooey-gooey bubbly (about 45 minutes). Finish with a sprinkle of sea salt, serve with something creamy.

So here's the deal: I'm not a fan of recipes. I grew up in the far out country and if we didn't have an ingredient we couldn't just run to the store--the nearest store was twenty minutes away and mostly carried Bud Lite and Slim Jims. We had to improvise.

By the same token, I love to cook, and I think what recipes offer us is inspiration: here is a way to combine flavors tastes and textures. But they should not be taken as a literal prototype for how a dish must be cooked.

In this recipe I have substituted every ingredient save the pears at one point or another and it always turns out delicious. If it didn't, it would just be an opportunity to try again.

One of my favorite cookbooks ever was an Alaskan cookbook from the 1940's. With every recipe (including pine needle jelly and moose head cheese) the book included a list of substitutions. If you are out in the bush, you have to be creative. You need to use what you have.

And, as my friend Kristin says, you always have five more options than you think.

This is a long winded (and yummy) way of saying that there is no wrong way. There is only the way.

Relative to our work, storians, can you think of some narratives in your life that have asked you to do something in a specific way, following a specific timeline, perhaps, or participating in a specific event? For your story showing practice, I want you to think of narratives that have been proscribed to you, and see them as a recipe. What does that look like? Then consider writing/drawing/painting/photographing the recipe.

Then craft a list of substitutions. Make it as big as it can be I have included a brief example from my own life below. Take until Thursday to meditate and create...

Recipe for Eternal Happiness by my family
Age 18-22: Go to college
Age 20-24: Get married
Age 25: Quit Job and have children
Age 25-45: Stay home with children
Age 50-?: Be a grandparent/great-grandparent

Recipe substitutions developed for my children:
Age 18-22: Volunteer your skills, learn a language, live abroad, build a house, hone your talents, experiment with art, photography, writing, singing, drama, science, math, gardens.

Age 20-24: Travel the world, continue your education, start a business, fall in love with a place, fall in love with a culture, take up a practice, learn to dance without inhibition.

Age 25-45: Begin to teach what you know, take more classes, finish a degree, exchange your skills, fall in love with yourself, again and again, define the work that is shaping you, see where can you take it further, partner up, partner down, adopt a child formally, adopt a child informally, give berth, give birth, create community, root down, tend to the earth, keep dancing.

Age 50-?: See all you can, in the moment, in the year, connect to your neighbors, be an elder, be a child, start all over, travel again, volunteer your skills, learn a language, live abroad, build a house, hone you talents, experiment with art, photography, writing, singing, drama, science, math, gardens...love each day. Give back.

Where Stories Fear to Tread

Good Morning, Storians--

Yesterday's meeting was beautiful and inspiring. I wish we had more time! You reminded me that the core of this work is the space, the gathering. There community happens, stories do their work.

For those of you who missed us yesterday, stories were shared. I want to continue in this vein on Tuesday. Your assignment, in addition to review of the initial Shlain chapters, is to set aside a portion of your practice time for writing one of your stories. Use whatever first comes to mind (I'm thinking right now of the time I picked up Peter Pan hitchhiking...). We all have many stories to choose from. Don't overthink it, this is not a formal essay. It may flow from you in paragraphs, in poetic line, as a list... It may need to be drawn before it can be written, stories require, as Barry Lopez says, feeding. Give your story what it needs this weekend. The only word I'm going to attach to this story, inspired by Ms. Whitney, is risk.

Additionally, Tuesday I will bring the goddess cards and books. In preparation for selecting your alter-ego for the semester, (if you don't already have one), think of what qualities you would like to embody. Or, what qualities you already embody but would like to enhance.

Today I want to be bold (thank you Freyja), courageous, and compassionate--but not at the expense of my self.

I will leave you with this quote from Jeannine Hall Gailey's poem Female Comic Book Superheroes II: When Catholic School Girls Strike Back (gratitude to Fortuna for the return of my book!):

Imagine every girl that walks alone
down a dark alley filled
with her own avenging angels:
feathers flying, fury like dust cudgels.

Late and Early

hmmm...no time like the present to consider the possibilities of non-linear time...
again.

Hi everyone--
Before I return to bed on this bright head-cold filled February day (oh loathsome sick sunny days), I thought I would reiterate the assignment for those absent from today's meeting:

Develop four intentions for this semester based on what you need right now. As an example I offer my four intentions below:

1. I intend to give my best to each undertaking, each endeavor, understanding, of course, that my best will feel different at different times. This is an intention to treat myself with compassion, to allow for beautiful mistakes.

2. I intend to practice health and sustainability as holistic components of my days.

3. Joy! Delight! Fun! Dancing! Twirling in a big white skirt on top of Powell Butte!

4. I will love each day, grit and grain, with gratitude. "Exhaust the little moment, Soon it dies, and be it gold it will not come again in this identical disguise." --Gwendolyn Brooks said something like that.

May all unfold with grace and ease. See you Thursday at 12! Yes!

Bloom!

Emergence, Week 2

Dear Storians--
It was wonderful to see you all yesterday--those not present were sorely missed. The primary accomplishment of the evening was the confirmation of meeting times that will function for the group! Right now it appears Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12-12:50 will work--flexibility offered where needed for those of us, myself included, who have conflicting obligations on one of those days. Locations are being investigated now and a confirmation of place will be emailed this weekend. As I mentioned last night, since we will be reading and working with the idea of story in both word and image, Tuesdays will be structured as "word", time to discuss our readings and the more traditionally academic aspects of this work. Thursdays will be "image", a time for informal story sharing, art, ritual and whatever else we can dream up. In the words of Margaret Mead, "there must be music and dancing and good food as well," if we are to change the world.

Your assignments for this week are to read the Northup chapters (if you haven't done so already) and develop (or continue) your story showing practice. Use those practice minutes each day as a way to integrate some of the elements of ritual Northup explores in her chapters. In addition to the questions I posed in the initial post, you may choose one of the following statements or quotations to explore in your practice:

Can you think of a time where the sharing of a story offered you freedom?

Where do you find your fullest free expression?

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Do one thing every day that scares you. What could this look like?

Is there a place in your life where you hold fear? What would it take to confront that fear?

Respond to any of the following quotations:

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward."
--Amelia Earhart

"I think there is a choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice."
--Muriel Rukeyser

"You can't test courage cautiously."
--Annie Dillard

Until we meet again, be well---

Initiation, Week 1

"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living."

--Anais Nin

Welcome Community Storians--

I am so glad you have chosen to come together for this work. What follows is an excerpt from the course description and structural outline for the semester. At the end of the post I have listed your reading assignment and story showing prompts (discussed further on) for the week. Have fun, explore, how many ways can you experience the same delightful thing: a cupcake, a raindrop, the early crocus bloom? Attention is at the heart of nurturing our stories. They are waiting for the opportunity to come forward.

Bring a few stories/observations for our first gathering. I look forward to our meeting time!

Course Description:

Community Stories is an experiential learning course that uses reading, writing and storytelling to explore personal and social stories and the assumptions those stories convey. You will read to investigate the complex and at times controversial stories that inform our cultural perception of gender relations, examine your own personal stories through the development of a daily “story showing” practice. Your personal growth and development is part of your training as mentors for young women in the greater community. Mentor training will culminate in the development of a mentoring project.

Process:

For the first third of the course we will focus on examining and critiquing common cultural stories—specifically with regard to gender relations and our physical and psychological relationships--and exploring how those stories have impacted us and our perception of the world. This work will include reading, writing, and will incorporate experiential activities. Because the course meets once weekly, you will be required to keep a record of your reading, writing and activities in a notebook or journal. Reading commentaries—one or two paragraphs about each assigned section or handout—will be a useful way of recalling and integrating information. I suggest for each commentary you write something about the work you liked, something you didn’t like, and something you can take away from the work and apply to your own life. I also suggest you write at least one question for each section we read.

Your attention to the process of this work is vitally important, for it is only by bravely examining the stories of our culture and our own past that we can give others permission to do the same. This is the preliminary work of mentoring.

Practice:

You will be responsible for developing a daily “story showing” practice, setting aside time to write, draw, paint, or photograph. Early in the course we will examine the importance of ritual and talk about setting “sacred” space, time for this work that is non-negotiable. It may be as short as 10 minutes, or as long as you like, the time may incorporate any other activities—meditation, breath work, walking, dance—that you wish, but the most important aspect of the practice is the story showing. It must be done consistently. Each week I will post story showing prompts on this blog, to stir the pot. All of your recorded responses can be uploaded here as posts. In this way we can share and dialogue through the week, bringing cohesiveness to our time together.

Projects:

You will be divided into mentoring teams early in the semester and asked to assess your experience and skills, also your areas of interest. As a group you will develop, market and host a series of story workshops for girls. The workshops will be hosted in teams, with each team choosing an area of emphasis. After you have completed your workshop, you will develop a project proposal based on the experience, a way of continuing your experience even after the conclusion of the semester.

Texts:

Cunt by Inga Muscio

Ritualizing Women by Lesley A. Northup

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain

Wild Feminine by Tami Lynne Kent

Selected Readings on e-reserve

Other books you may wish to investigate:

Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northrup

A Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara Walker

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk

We begin this week with observation and initiation into sacred space, narrative, and practice.

Readings:

Ritualizing Women Chapters 2-4 (also available on e-reserve, password vesta)

Story Showing: choose one or more questions to explore through the week.

1. Show a story about ritual versus routine. This may be through photographs, drawing, writing, painting...etc, or a combination of mediums.

• What do those words/concepts mean to you?
• Do you have a story (your own or your family's) about either of these ideas?
• How do those ideas shape your life?
• What does ritual look/feel like?
• What does routine look/feel like?
• How many different ways can you show this story?

Enjoy the journey.

"There is nothing more important than this day."

--Goethe

Week One, Image and Word