During the first week of 2013, I visited with my close artist friend, that I have much in common with, and we were discussing art, over a cup of tea, as we often do. The topic of journaling came up, and she shared that presently, she is reading her many journals, kept over several years.
I too, share with her, a love of regular journaling, that has been a profoundly healing, life changing, tool, that I have used as a way of telling my own story.
Looking back over my journals, I clearly see that, for probably more than thirty years, my life has been bracketed by story, and this fact continues to help me to creatively make sense of my world, through the language of story. My own story and the stories of others shared, may not be the same, however they act like redeeming guideposts to help me find my way, and to discern the right path to follow.
I was uplifted and inspired by two people, writers that I found out about today, who have been greatly influenced by story telling. The first was journalist, Don Lattin who has written, Distilled Spirits, and the second was writer and mythographer Marina Warner who wrote Stranger Magic, and writes about Shīrazād, the fictional wife of the Sultan and narrator of The Arabian Nights.
The Spirituality of Imperfection, Story Telling and The Search For Meaning, by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum I read several years back and this book greatly helped me to understand the power and importance of story telling.
Stories have become the primary subject matter for my art work and I am so grateful and happy to have this extended expression for my involvement in story telling. I am very excited to read Marina Warner's and Don Lattin's books.
I too, share with her, a love of regular journaling, that has been a profoundly healing, life changing, tool, that I have used as a way of telling my own story.
Looking back over my journals, I clearly see that, for probably more than thirty years, my life has been bracketed by story, and this fact continues to help me to creatively make sense of my world, through the language of story. My own story and the stories of others shared, may not be the same, however they act like redeeming guideposts to help me find my way, and to discern the right path to follow.
I was uplifted and inspired by two people, writers that I found out about today, who have been greatly influenced by story telling. The first was journalist, Don Lattin who has written, Distilled Spirits, and the second was writer and mythographer Marina Warner who wrote Stranger Magic, and writes about Shīrazād, the fictional wife of the Sultan and narrator of The Arabian Nights.
The Spirituality of Imperfection, Story Telling and The Search For Meaning, by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum I read several years back and this book greatly helped me to understand the power and importance of story telling.
Stories have become the primary subject matter for my art work and I am so grateful and happy to have this extended expression for my involvement in story telling. I am very excited to read Marina Warner's and Don Lattin's books.
2 comments:
I believe that story telling is often the major focal point of all art, whether we know the story or not; since many of us often indulge in our own story as we view works of art. I'll have to check out those books you mentioned. :)
Thank you for your comment Indigene What you say is very true. From the moment we start to express ourselves I think our stories begin. It makes me happy to be able to do this, as an artist, to see, hear and learn the stories of others. We all have one!
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